Forever and Always, Ha'su
by I'mAGeekNotANerd
Summary: what happens to the verse when reavers and romulans under a rogue admiral try and create their own river tam? And this river tam has family connections with a specific vulcan? bloody chaos. i don't own heroes, firefly, or star trek. Enjoy and PLEASE read and review: warning T for reaver related blood and gore. in light of a new menace, the enterprise aims to misbehave. CLEARLY AU.
1. Chapter 1

_**A.N.**_i got a really good review from someone that gave me a lot of feedback on how i should do this. so this is a REALLY long story in an alternate timeline (no idea when it would take place). it has a LOT of heroes scenes in it (because Sylar/mother scenes fit what i was shooting for) and firefly scenes since this is sort of a cross over. reviews are welcome (any and all). i know that this is sometimes a little slow and repetitive and confusing, but bear with me: i came up with this in the middle of the night and just went with it. basically: what happens if reavers and romulans under a rogue admiral try and create their own "river tam" (who is spock's daughter). And of course the _Enterprise_ isn't far behind. Battles and bloody chaos ensues and this is rated T+++++++ for reaver related blood and gore. you know what i mean if you're a fellow browncoat who aims to misbehave. enjoy!

_**STAR TREK:**_ _Forever and Always, Ha'su_

"Captain, I'm receiving no signal from Sinclair 12," said Lt. Uhura, looking up from the communications console, her fingers stretched across the controls. She reached up and lightly touched the transmitter in her ear.

"Open all hailing frequencies, Lt. Uhura," said Kirk leaning forward in his seat, gazing intently at the planet they were in orbit about: the desert planet of Sinclair 12. Uhura shook her dark head.

"All hailing frequencies have been open, captain. I opened them as soon as the planet didn't respond to our hail." Kirk nodded in acknowledgement.

"Very well, Lt. Keep trying." Uhura nodded and pressed several buttons.

"Captain-" began Uhura. The whole bridge turned to her. She seemed to be zoned out, staring at something no one could see before her.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" asked Kirk, rising and walking over to her.

'It was a brief transmission, sir..." she looked at Kirk. "Brief, captain, but unmistakable: 'Help'." She reached over to the control panel and pressed a few buttons. "It's a..." a perplexed look came over her African complexion. "A child's voice, captain. Cut off almost immediately."

_Captain's log Star Date 2341.12: Lt. Uhura has picked up a single word distress call from science outpost Sinclair 12. A monthly check up on this new colony has become mandatory, but we are receiving no further transmissions. Something has obviously gone wrong on the planet's surface. We can only hope that it isn't as bad as it is coming off at the moment._

"Mr. Spock," said Kirk walking over to the science station. "Sensor readings."

"Yes, captain." Spock straightened and faced Kirk. "There seems to be an immense sandstorm over the colony, captain. The sensor readings are likely to be inaccurate."

"Doesn't matter, Spock. Just give me a general idea of what's happening down there," said Kirk, walking back to the captain's chair. He pressed one of the many white buttons on the arm of the seat.

"Kirk to sick bay."

"McCoy here."

"Bones, report to the bridge immediately. I'll fill you in once you get here. Kirk out."

"Captain, the sensor readings say that there is little to no life on the colony," said Spock, turning to look at Kirk. "The transmission seems to have come from the central command center." The door opened and McCoy walked in.

"Bones," said Kirk, gesturing him over to Lt. Uhura. "Listen to that transmission. It's a child, and I'd like to know what gender and a rough estimate of age." McCoy leaned forward, listening on Uhura's transmitter intently.

"It's a girl, Jim," said McCoy, looking up. "She's whispering so it's hard to determine her age. I'd say between ten and fourteen." Kirk's brow furrowed and he nodded. He hit another button.

"Scotty, prepare to beam eight down to the surface. You have the comm." Kirk turned to the bridge crew. "Mr. Burns take over Uhura's post. Spock, Bones, Yeoman...come with me. Maintain orbit, Mr. Sulu."

"Aye, Captain," said the Chinese navigator. The landing party followed Kirk into the turbolift and they started down to the deck with the transporter room. Three security ensigns joined them and they all attached phasers to their waists and hung tricorders on their shoulders.

"Energize, Scotty."

"Energizing, captain." The world faded to darkness as a strange tingling sensation filled their bodies.

Sand blew about them and the landing party raised their arms to shield their eyes, noses, and mouths. Spock squinted his eyes and scanned the desert landscape. He was used to this terrain.

"There!" he yelled to the others, gesturing to a massive, sand covered building. The landing party stumbled after the tall Vulcan, determined not to lose sight of the tall, broad figure. They stopped before two heavy metal doors and together Spock and one of the ensigns pulled them open. As they swung outward, waves of cool air hit them in the face, a pleasant contrast for the humans to the dry heat of the desert. The ensign walked in, followed by Uhura, Spock, Kirk, Yeoman Tamura, Bones, and the last two ensigns. Outside, the wind howled and the air was punctuated by the heavy breathing of the adrenaline filled landing party; the hall lights flickered on and off in irregular patterns, never staying on for longer than a second.

"I don't like this, Jim," McCoy muttered lowly. "Reminds me of a tomb."

"Easy, Bones, Don't frighten the women," returned Kirk in the same fashion. McCoy raised an eyebrow as his brave captain looked around himself in a slightly nervous way. Suddenly, the air was shattered with a hysterical scream of fright from Uhura and the young ensign in the lead shouted, startled.

"What happened? Lieutenant, are you alright?" called Jim, pushing to the front of the line, phaser drawn. Uhura, shaking like a leaf, was clinging to Tamura and both were staring at each other, terrified. Spock glanced once at them and gazed ahead, his expression sober. Kirk followed his gaze.

"My God!" breathed Bones, gazing at the sight that had been the source of all of the emotion. A dead and mutilated man hung by his wrists in the middle of the hall. The doctor stepped forward and examined the corpse. "Primitive weapons, Jim. I'd say that the indigenous came in and killed this man. Judging by the work they did on him, I don't think they left any one else alive."

"Affirmative, captain," said Tamura, her Chinese accent strong. "Tricorder readings show that there is no sign of life here. Whoever was alive when we arrived in orbit..." she trailed off.

"Spock, help me get him down." Spock gently led Uhura and Tamura to a farther back position, and he felt slight apprehension at the numb look in Uhura's eyes. Together, the two men got the man down and Spock knew Kirk well enough to know that that small expletive drawn from him at such a low level meant something else had gone wrong.

"_Damn._"

"What is it, Captain?" asked Spock. "Do you recognize him as well?" Jim nodded sadly.

"It's Seytar...The doctor. We spoke to him not an hour ago." Spock nodded, his demeanor even more somber than ever before. Kirk shook his head. "Poor man."

"Jim, we have to move on. Seytar may be dead, but there may be some who are still alive," protested Bones. As soon as he finished talking, the lights stopped flickering and stayed on.

"Oh my god!" gasped Uhura. Spock seemed to freeze in time, and the rest of the mens' expressions were ones of horror. Everyone except Spock drew their phasers and pointed them at the new scene.

"Bones...this is a tomb," whispered Kirk hoarsely. The hall widened to a bigger room that appeared to be a recreational room. The door still bore signs of scorch marks and gouges in the metal. Inside, bars could be seen blocking the entrance. But it hadn't been enough. In the small crack of the open door was an entire room, covered in bodies.

_Captain's log, supplementary, star date: same. The colony of Sinclair 12 seems to have been wiped out. By who or what, we aren't sure. Logs and records suddenly stopped and it seems as if the weapons used were primitive. We have families here with children, but they are too young to have been the one who signaled us. Despite the room and surrounding walls that the attack took place in, the whole base is in perfect condition. No one entering from the front would have been able to tell that there was a massacre here. _

The door was stuck fast with who knows what, but Spock and Ensign Forest eventually body-slammed it, knocking it off its hinges. Cautiously, they entered the room. Fifty to seventy of the ninety members of the colony lay scattered across the room as if some giant hand had carelessly thrown them around. Children, women, and men lay in tangled messes and blood hadn't even dried on their wounds.

"Captain?" asked Uhura, kneeling by a young boy at the end of the hall. She hadn't noticed him when they first came in, he was so small and curled up in the corner. "How could anyone do this? Kill innocent children?"

She turned the boy over and felt a sense of nausea come over her. _If he had been human, he would have looked like this child _she thought, frightened. She looked up and Kirk followed her gaze between the boy and the first officer. Understanding dawned in his eyes.

"It's not him, Nyota. Not him," he whispered. She nodded numbly. "And trust me, whoever did this will pay for this genocide with his life. Or _they_ will pay with _their_ lives."

"Captain!" called the youngest ensign, Forest. He was standing before a dark side room. "I think I saw something mov-" he shouted in surprise and pain as a spear shaft plunged into his chest. He fell to the ground and a limping, but still agile, mutilated humanoid leaped out of the room. He was covered in strange armor and had metal implanted in his face. He looked at the group of seven around him and threw himself at Kirk. In one smooth motion, he aimed and fired. The man went down and Bones quickly checked the ensign. He looked at his captain and shook his head. He moved on to the mangled creature and surprise flitted across his face.

"He's dead Jim. Your phaser was on stun. I could tell by the color of the beam. I don't know why he died, but he did." He looked at all the bloodied weaponry that was on the corpse. "I wouldn't be surprised if he killed these people."

"One man, doctor?" said Spock tilting his head and lifting an eyebrow. "Highly illogical."

"Life and death are seldom logical, you green-blooded-" Kirk decided to interrupt before this escalated.

"I agree with Spock, Bones. See here? He's injured more so than the rest of his injuries. His people probably just left him here because he would be nothing but a burden. One man alone could not have killed seventy people." He turned to the others. "Check the other rooms. And be **very** careful."

Everyone set off in different directions and Spock went in on his own to the communications chamber. He stepped carefully over two Sinclairians who were as mutilated and mangled as the rest and towards the controls. They were higher above the ground by seven feet in a sort of loft, and Spock had to crane his neck to see over the edge. He saw a pale arm and dark brown hair dangling over the edge of the second level. Spock pulled out his communicator.

"Spock to Captain Kirk." Kirk pulled out his communicator.

"Kirk here, are you alright?" he asked urgently.

"Yes. Jim..." the people with the captain looked around in surprise and dread. Spock only said Jim for select occasions. And those select occasions were rarely good. "I found the girl. I believe she's dead." The landing party looked at Kirk expectantly.

"Captain?" asked Spock after a moments silence.

"Here, Spock. We'll be right over. Kirk out." Jim closed the communicator and sighed. "All right, lets get over to communications control room. Seal off every room you exit."

"Jim?" asked McCoy, puzzled. He half turned to the doctor.

"We don't want anyone getting out." Then, he left, heading for the communications chamber.

"Where is she, Spock?" asked McCoy, pulling out his medical scanner.

"She is up there, doctor. I'll bring her down for you." Spock walked up the stairs to the loft followed by Kirk and one of the security officers. Gently, he knelt by the girl and grabbed her about her tiny waist. Unseen by any of them, one of the girl's eyes snapped open, glittering black in the flickering light.

There was a snarl and the girl twisted herself around, slamming the heel of her palm into the side of his face. She swept Spock's legs out from under him, and he grunted as his lip was cut against the edge of his lower teeth. She swung a booted foot into the air and kicked the tall Ensign Peterson in the side of the neck; there was a sickening crack and he fell to the floor.

Kirk stepped forward with his hands held up to show that he bore no weapon. The girl launched at him and after a series of bewildering twists and turns, Kirk was on his back, with his own phaser pointed at his chest.

That was when two blue clad arms wrapped around her and jerked her off balance. The phaser fired and missed Bones by a centimeter as the red beam flew past his face. He gave a startled shout and hit the ground, determined to stay out of firing range. Spock struggled to keep his footing, but maintained a hold on the child.

"NO! Won't get us all! Won't submit!" she screamed, fighting against the Vulcan's vice-like grip. She flung her head backwards and Spock barely dodged her sudden attack.

"Won't kill us all!" The first officer tried to administer his nerve pinch but she thrashed too much and spun around to face him. She took her chance and slammed a fist into his face, fingers bent half-way. In a daze of pain, Spock fell to the ground, lip and nose bleeding even more.

She picked up Kirk's fallen phaser and spun around to face the landing party.

"You won't get us all," she whispered, not even panting. "You can try. You can kill all the others, but you won't get me. No power in the verse...can stop me..." she trailed off and looked down at her knuckles where they were stained green by Spock's blood. Something shifted deep in the black eyes. Slowly, she released the phaser and looked at her hands in bafflement. She looked up at Spock.

"You..._bastard!_ You killed them all. Trying to kill me wasn't enough, was it? You had to try to kill everyone. You _BASTARD! MURDER! R –" _She spun around as Kirk stepped forward raising the phaser threateningly.

Spock dove at her and his hand clamped down on her shoulder. The violent girl screamed in anger and she fell to the ground, laying there in a heap. Panting, Spock knelt by her and pulled her hair away from her back. A burned tattoo-like mark was branded into the back of her shoulder.

"Hell's Guard child? Here on Sinclair 12?" asked Kirk, amazed. Spock shook his head.

"No Captain. It is unlike any I've ever seen: some version of a sun." He gestured for Jim to come closer and he looked at the burned tattoo in her skin. It was a small black circle with blade like rays branching off. They looked suspiciously like klingon bat'leths that curved a bit more. Spock looked at his captain and saw the frown forming. He knew what he was thinking.

"While the rays resembled bat'leths, Jim, I don't think she has anything to do with the Klingons. I do not believe she realized that I was Vulcan. I believe she thought I was a Romulan. She was beginning to say a word that started with an 'R' before you provided that much needed distraction."

"Well, half of me is relieved that she's under, the other half wants to know what she was going to say," commented Kirk wryly. "You think it was Romulans?"

"Quite probably, Captain: she's a girl who's not stable and knows what Romulans look like. Since she has had something done to her and she's been traumatized and she seems to panic at the sight of a Romulan, it's safe to assume that she has something to do with Romulans. By the same logic, her traumatic experience is obviously going make her assume that I'm a Romulan and not a Vulcan." McCoy rose from his prone position on the ground and looked up at the Vulcan.

"Spock, I don't think anyone understood a single world that came out of that alien mouth of yours," he said in his irritated tone. "Are you trying to say since she had an unpleasant run-in with Romulans that she is going to assume that you are a Romulan, because she's traumatized?"

"I believe that is what I said, Doctor," the Vulcan answered in his serious tone. McCoy muttered darkly under his breath and added something that sounded suspiciously like "_See what I mean?_" Jim stepped forward.

"Spock, do you think that you could find out something about her through a mind meld?" he asked softly. Spock tilted his head ever so slightly in consideration.

"I can try captain. Although it will be risky for both sides with a mind so unstable." He gently placed his hand on the psi points of her face and felt a sense of calm settle over the room. Then, it shattered.

The girl's eyes snapped open and she screamed a terrible cry of pain and suffering and the Vulcan fell away from her, collapsing in a heap on the ground, head in his hands. The girl curled up in a ball and sobbed.

"Mr. Spock!" cried Tamura running over to kneel by the Vulcan, her tricorder and McCoy's medical instrument whirring. Spock shakily sat up and waved her hands away. His vision was swimming slightly and his head and hands ached and sharp pain shot up his body.

"I-I'm fine, ensign," he lied, "Thank you for your concern." McCoy had hurried up the stairs to kneel by the girl. He pulled out a hypo and pressed it into her arm. She immediately stopped crying and sat up, looking at McCoy, shadows of betrayal and relief chasing each other across her face. Then, her eyes rolled up into her head and she fell backwards onto the floor. But before she hit the ground, a pair of hands caught her and settled her dark head softly on the metal ground. McCoy looked up at Spock in surprise. He noticed his slight trembling.

"She has been through enough. She doesn't need to wake up with a throbbing head." McCoy picked up his instrument and waved it over the Vulcan.

"Spock, your psi activity is off the charts. What did she do to you?"

"What I said would be a risk, Doctor. Her mind...I didn't realize it would be that powerful."

"What did you get, Spock?" The Vulcan looked up at Kirk and slowly shook his head, one eyebrow raised in astonishment.

"Nothing. She shut me out. She seemed to have a sort of mental defense mechanism. All I got was extreme pain and extreme loneliness. Her mind is physically changed." He stood and faced the captain directly. "I only got one thing from her: her name."

"What was it?" asked Kirk, an undercurrent of excitement in his voice.

"Aislinn." They looked down at the girl and a sense of foreboding crept into the room, broken by the whir of McCoy's instruments. "How is she doctor?"

"She's in a bad way, Spock. It will be best that she gets into proper medical facilities as soon as possible. Jim, I can't stay here and neither can she. I've got a patient now."

"Go ahead Bones." McCoy nodded his thanks to Jim, before turning to Spock.

"Can you help me get her to sick bay? I feel more comfortable knowing that I have a strong, powerful Vulcan to back me up if she goes crazy again." The Vulcan nodded his consent and shot a questioning glance at Jim. The captain nodded.

"Go ahead, Spock. Help Bones." he pulled out his communicator. "Scotty, two to beam up."

"_Aye, Captain. Which two, mae I ask?_" came the scottish engineer's voice.

"Mr. Spock and Doctor McCoy. Beam immediately. Have a medical team standing by."

"_Aye, captain. Nothin' too bad then?_"

_"_No, Scotty. Energize."

"_Energizing_." Kirk watched in mild consternation as his two friends, the taller one carrying Aislinn, faded into nothing. Spock was more than capable of handling that girl. So why was he so worried?


	2. Chapter 2

Back in the transporter room, Spock shifted uneasily from foot to foot as the medical team gazed at him in fascination: Spock, the invincible Vulcan was carrying a girl in a black dress, and his face was covered with his emerald drying blood. He vaguely wondered what this was doing to his reputation.

"Place her on the stretcher, Spock," said McCoy shifting immediately to his doctoring mode. "Nurse Chapel, place restraints on her. Don't let her unrestrained unless Spock or a group of security guards are with you. She's deadly."

"Is that why Mr. Spock..." Christine trailed off. Spock raised an eyebrow at her as he placed the girl on the gurney before him. She blushed and turned to the medical supplies. Ever since the run in with the Plutonians, she hadn't been able to look at, let alone talk to the Vulcan. She handed him a cloth and their fingers brushed ever so slightly. Spock winced as emotions flooded into him from her. He was going to have to look into the psi damage done to him. Hopefully it was only temporary.

The wince hadn't gone unnoticed. They wheeled the girl into sick bay and transferred her over to a bio bed. McCoy unrestrained her, but gave her a heavy sedative. After the nurses had been warned of her explosive and unpredictable behavior, McCoy shooed them away, saying he could handle her from here. McCoy waited until he had situated several items before confronting Spock. The Vulcan was seated in one of the chairs, cleaning his face of the blood. He set down the cloth, asking,

"How is Aislinn?" The silence didn't bode well and he looked at McCoy.

"She's uh..." He walked over to Spock and pulled another chair alongside him. "She's not well, Spock. She's stayed under and none of my medications are working. I took a full medical scan of her and she is in top physical condition. She's super strong, fast, nimble, agile, flexible, you name it. But her mind," he tapped the side of his head. "That's where it goes all screwy. It shows signs of traumatic scarring and constant subconscious use. She's a prodigy, a genius in all the arts, or was before they messed with her brain. They were fixing her up, Spock. Changing her mind. I took a personality scan, and it was constantly changing, as if her personality depended on those around her."

"A highly volatile, vocal version of Gem," commented Spock, staring at the wall. McCoy looked at him and a grim look came over his face. He remembered the sweet, gentle Empath.

"Yeah...like Gem. I just don't see Aislinn sacrificing herself for any of us." Spock raised his eyebrow and nodded once in agreement.

"She still in sick bay?" he asked, looking around.

"Well yeah, Spock. I wouldn't send her to quarters now, it's too soon. She's over there in the corner. She's – what the hell?" he snapped, and Spock stood with better results: he actually managed to with out getting dizzy from his attack.

She was laying perfectly still on the bed, hands together on her breast, in the classic Vulcan meditation pose. Her eyes were open, but distant.

"Spock, is she really performing a..._Vulcan_ meditation in _my sickbay?!_" he hissed.

"It would appear so, doctor. Do you still oppose to my people's ways when a simple child performs them? A _human child_?" he added pointedly.

"Oh, shut up, you green-blooded hobgoblin," snarled McCoy, walking slowly over to the girl. When he had reached the edge of the bed, the girl was just staring straight ahead. Slowly, her head tilted to gaze at him. Then, she turned back at the ceiling and said in a distant voice,

"Doctor Leonard Horatio McCoy of Georgia of the United States of America on Earth... nicknamed Bones by Captain James Tiberius Kirk of Iowa of the United States of Earth. Has one daughter, Joanna...hasn't made contact in years...divorced his wife – "

"All right missy!" interrupted McCoy. "I don't need my whole life spewed out for everyone to hear!" Spock winced at the pain that McCoy must be feeling at the mention of his family. "How'd you know all that anyways?" She turned her black eyes on him.

"I know many things." She frowned slightly. "Things speak to me. Tell me what they know. Sometimes, I don't know what's my thoughts and what're others and..." her voice escalated in volume and emotion, and McCoy saw she was on the verge of an emotional breakdown, her hands gripping the sides of the bed so hard her knuckles were white.

"Shh, Aislinn," he whispered, placing a hand on her forehead. "You're safe and sound with us." She smiled but the expression seemed to freeze on her face. Then, it melted like an ice cube in a heat wave: terror and desperation. She was staring at a point in space past McCoy's elbow.

"_Him. _He'll get me...he'll take me back! Don't let him!" She seized the doctor's arm and clung on with amazing strength. "No!" Pushing himself unsteadily off the bio bed, Spock made his way over to the two of them and looked down at the girl, brow creased in thought.

"Bastard!" she screamed, flinging McCoy away and swinging to her feet with amazing speed and grace. Spock knew in an instant that she was all together too unstable. "You can't just take me and look into my mind! MURDERER!"

"Aislinn, I am not the person who did this to you," he said softly. "I am a Vulcan."

"LIAR!" she screamed. "They told me that, then and then...then..." She wordlessly screamed and dove at Spock, raking her nails down the side of his face. He spun around and out of the way and just barely managed to dodge a swipe aimed at his neck with a surgical blade.

"Aislinn!" yelled McCoy, "Aislinn, honey, Spock isn't going to hurt you.! Just calm down and get back on the bio bed. No one here is going to hurt you. Calm down Aislinn!"

"MURDERER!" she screamed, trying to maintain control. "He's a murderer! He killed all of those little children and their families! ALL!" she screamed. Her eyes were a battlefield of conflicting emotions. Then, she screamed in pain and fell to the ground, defeated by her own instability and the raging emotions in the room that she couldn't help but feel.

Spock walked to her and kneeled by her side. He gently placed a hand on her dark head and whispered thoughts to her along the lines of I will not hurt you. I am not one of them. I will not hurt you little one. Her trembling sobs became softer and she relaxed on the ground. He picked her up and gently laid her on the bio bed. He half turned to doctor McCoy, who was still on the ground, unsure as to whether or not she was stable again, and willing to stay under the range of fire until he was sure.

"Are you all righ-" Spock began before he stopped, feeling something thud into him beneath his ribs. McCoy launched upright and seemed to be running towards him. In his peripheral vision, he saw Aislinn sitting upright in her bed, arm extended to him. He turned around and vaguely heard Bones screaming his name. Why was everything so slow? He saw McCoy grab Aislinn and throw her across the room, smashing through one of the glass panels. What had just happened?

Suddenly, he felt a jarring sensation in his arm and realized that he had hit the floor. McCoy ran to the com on the wall and yelled for security and Jim to get his ass back on board. Then, he turned and ran to Spock, just catching him before he hit the ground fully. McCoy seemed shocked and was simply holding Spock down, shouting something intelligible.

"There's no need to be anxious, Spock," whispered Amanda's soft voice. Spock found he couldn't breath and that something warm was staining his shirt and filling his mouth. "There's no need to be anxious..." Her soft voice drifted to him again as his steady hand found the surgical blade buried in his chest. He looked up at McCoy and saw the horror and fear etched in his face before he passed out.

_Captain's private log. Star Date...i don't even care. When Bones called me on board, I thought it had something to do with that poor girl messing up his sick bay in one of her frenzies. What I didn't expect to find was Bones kneeling in a pool of green blood in shock, Spock dying in his arms, Christine Chapel nearly passed out with horror, or the girl being carried away to a high security vault, unconscious from Bones' maddened throw through a glass panel. I myself nearly passed out on the spot. Planet-side, things weren't any better. We found traces of life forms, humans that had escaped the massacre. Only seventy of the ninety personnel are accounted for. This girl will be a decisive point in whether or not we notify Starfleet of what has happened here. I know that I should be reporting this immediately, but I want more information before I contact them. I can only hope that she doesn't kill any one else. Or succeed in her plan to kill Spock. Kirk out. _

Kirk sat back in the chair at his desk in his quarters and sighed heavily. He had known Spock for several years now and was confident that the Vulcan could have handled anything that would come at them. This girl seemed to be an exception. She had injured him mentally, stripping him of all psi control so that the slightest touch with another sent waves of thought crashing over him, and then stabbed him with a surgical instrument. It had been a well aimed thrust, as if she knew exactly where the weak points in his friend's anatomy were and exploited those weaknesses. There was something off about her. He made a mental note to check in on her later. He rose wearily and headed up to the bridge. He entered the room and noticed immediately what was wrong. It was quiet. Too quiet. He walked over to his chair and sat down. In his peripheral vision, he couldn't help but notice that the science station was empty, and the chair was still facing the direction that it had when Spock had left for the landing party. Kirk cleared his throat and turned to face Chekov.

"Mr. Chekov," he said. He knew this would be hard for his Spock's protegee, but it was what the young Russian was trained for. "Scan the surface; see if that damned sandstorm has passed over. And if it has, scan for life form readings." Chekov looked at him, for a moment hesitating. Then, he stood up and moved to the science station.

"Yes, keptin. It's about time someone sat in zhat chair. It's been starin' at us all fer too long." Kirk smiled and was relieved that Chekov had tried to make light of the tense moment. It was something that he liked about the navigator.

He sat down in Spock's chair after briefly pausing. He leaned over the scanner and pressed a few buttons without looking. For some inexplicable reason, the mood around them relaxed and they seemed to sit more comfortably in their seats.

"Zhe sand storm is still raging strong. Zhese readings vill be inaccurate."Then, Chekov said something in surprised Russian. "Keptin!" he said surprised. "There's been a sudden...ah..." he searched for a word, "influx of life readings. Unless I am misreading Mr. Spock's..." that tension was back in the air. "...instruments."

"I'm sure your readings are accurate, Mr. Chekov," said Kirk, walking over. "We'll wait for the sand storm to abate a little more before I send down a landing party. I don't want similar results to this last one." He paused mid turn and then walked over to his chair. He pressed a button down on the arm.

"Bones?" he said without any formal preamble. "How is he?" He heard a sort of strangled noise and then muffled shouts between his CMO and Christine. "Bones?"

"Nurse Chapel, here, Captain."

"What's wrong?" he asked, a slight frown furrowing his brow.

"You'd...best get down here in sick bay, captain," she said, softly. "We have much to discuss with you." Kirk looked up at the bridge crew and, discreetly, Uhura waved him on towards the turbolift. He nodded his thanks and entered the lift. The doors hadn't even shut before he said "Sickbay." The door slid closed and the bridge crew looked at each other.

"That didn't sound so good," said Sulu softly. Uhura looked at him and they weren't surprised to see the tears that glistened in her eyes. She was like the mother of the whole ship and whenever somebody got hurt, she was always the first to feel the pain.

"What could be so bad that the doctor could lose control and snap at Nurse Chapel?" the Chinese helmsman continued. He looked around at the other bridge members. Scotty looked up from his prone position on the floor where he was fixing a malfunctioning environment station.

"I don' know, lad," he said. "But I 'ave an idea." He went back to his work and muttered, "Le's hope I'm wrong fer once." Uhura stood up and placed her transmitter on the console slightly dazed.

"Mr. Scott? Are you saying?" Scotty looked up at her and merely repeated what he had last said.

"Le's hope I'm wrong." Uhura's eyes widened and she flew into the turbolift, ignoring Scotty's call for her to report back to her station.

"Now you have done it, you thick headed engineer!" shouted Sulu, rising.

"Oi! Watch that tongue, lad! When captain and the first officer aren't in here, I'm n charge," cautioned Scotty from the floor.

"You've got her running down to sickbay, thinking that he's dead!" Scotty's eyes widened. That hadn't been what he had meant at all.


	3. Chapter 3

Desperate, Uhura ran down the halls, shoving by startled crew members. Finally, she arrived at the doors of sick bay and slowly, reluctantly, walked in. Kirk was slumped in a chair and staring numbly at his hands. McCoy was standing over him, an emerald hand staining his yellow command shirt almost unconsciously.

"Nyota, now's not the time," said Christine, walking over to the communications officer. "You can do more for Kirk up on the bridge."

"I'm not here for the Captain." The confession was out of her mouth before she could even stop it. McCoy looked over at Christine and she met his gaze. He raised an eyebrow in a resigned should we? sort of way. Christine nodded and looked down.

"He's back there," she said softly, and Uhura barely managed to whisper thank you before she ran into the adjacent room. She walked slowly over to the bio bed and sat carefully on the mattress beside her comrade.

"Spock?" she whispered, knowing that he wouldn't respond. "Mr. Spock, if you're in a healing trance, please give some sort of sign that you can hear me." Nothing. From the doorway, Dr. M'Benga watched sadly.

Uhura held his hand and began talking again.

"Damn it all. I hate being the 'mother' onboard this ship. Too many children and beloved family to lose. And everyone seems to be getting hurt all the time. Don't let yourself be next Spock."

The Vulcan was lying perfectly straight as if he had been laid in an invisible coffin. The only thing that wasn't facing straight up was his head. It was lying limply to the side, clear medical tubes assisting him breathe. Another tube was inserted in the crook of his elbow, feeding his body -T blood, the rarest that just had to be his blood type. Why did those things always have to happen to him? Uhura began mentally ticking off all the times he had been injured.

The shape-shifter, Charlie X, the Psi 2000 disease, poison dart plant, lightning, force fields, hideous aliens, having his brain removed, and that _flint lock_ for crying out loud. This was the twenty-third century! A flint lock of all things! She sighed. Those were only the ones she could remember off the top of her head. There had been countless other times as well. She looked back at her ship mate.

His normally lucid, alert brown eyes were glazed and sightless as he lay unconscious, kept alive solely by the machinery he was hooked up to. It was painful to see the once so powerful, invincible first officer laid so low by a simple girl. As Uhura sat there, M'Benga checked the panel. He looked back to the two. Still so low.

Suddenly, Mr. Spock's eyes seemed to regain some of their lucidity, but they were still fogged up, dead. Then, McCoy came out of nowhere and the hiss of a hypo spray plunged their friend back into open-eyed unconsciousness. He had been conscious for those few seconds, gazing up at the faces around him. But now, he was unconscious and unresponsive. Kirk looked at the two doctors and the nurse and asked the question he was dreading.

"What happened to him? What's wrong?" Christine looked at McCoy and he sighed, wiping his hands of the Vulcan's blood.

"Uhura, report back to bridge." Uhura looked at McCoy, surprised. "Please." She nodded reluctantly

"Aye sir." She walked out the door, hoping to catch some of the conversation. She didn't.

"I don't know if you're ready to hear this, Jim," began McCoy softly. "But...Spock's career just came to an end."

"What do you mean, Bones?" he asked. "How can his career be over? He's still alive, and he'll pull through this one like he did all the other times he's nearly gotten himself killed! What is wrong with him?" No answer. "Dammit, I'm the captain, he's my first officer and my best friend! Tell me what's wrong with him!" McCoy took a deep breath.

"Sir, his lung is punctured. It's only through a difficult series of tubes and drainage that we are keeping him alive. The procedure to fix him could very well kill him. If it weren't for that he'd probably be dead; there isn't much we can do now, Jim."

"That's a lie." They looked at Christine. "That's a damn lie and you know it Doctor McCoy. There's one thing we can do. It's never been performed on a Vulcan before and it will be hard and complicated."

"No, Christine," said McCoy, sharply. "That surgery is too risky, and if it was to be performed, Spock would have to give the okay, go ahead. If you haven't noticed, he's on the brink of death. We can't exactly have a face to face conversation right now. He almost crashed on us." With that, McCoy rose and stalked out of the room, locking himself into his medical office. Kirk looked at Christine and M'Benga. Christine cleared her throat and her eyes seemed to be watering.

"We're waiting to see if there is anything we can do for him before we pull the plug." Her voice cracked over those last few words.

"Pull the plug?" whispered Kirk, hoarsely. "You can't possibly be contemplating pulling the plug!" The two medics looked down.

"It was his wish, Captain," whispered Christine. "He said that if he was ever in this position...kept alive by machines only, that he wanted us to...pull the plug." She held a tape out to him with a trembling arm. Warily, he took it and stuck it into one of the screens. Immediately, the first officer's voice filled the room.

"_If you are listening to this, I can only assume that I have been grievously injured, and am being kept alive by the sick bay's machinery, and I have no other chance for life. If I am in said position, Doctor McCoy, tell Jim that I instructed you to 'pull the plug,' as it were. There is no need for me to be kept alive any longer than is necessary, nor for you to waste your time on one who is doomed to go. I assume that I was injured doing my duty and that is all that I ask for in remembrance. This is my choice. Remember, Doctor, don't let others sway you to keep me alive any longer. I am sorry for the pain that I will cause you upon my death. But do not grieve forever. Remember me for who I was during my life, not at the end. Spock out."_

A heavy silence fell over the three people in the room. As one, they looked over at the still Vulcan. His weak, rasping breathing pattern seemed to be magnified, as if reminding them of his request. Kirk looked at M'Benga and back to Christine. He massaged the sides of his head.

"Tell me about this surgery. It can't be harder than re-installing his brain, can it?" M'Benga's eyes shot wide open and he looked at Kirk in horror.

"Re-installing his brain?!" he cried. "When did – What – How –" Then, he stopped as the two looked at him with pained expressions. "Do I even want to know?" They shook their heads.

"Can it Christine?" he asked.

"Well, no." Kirk felt his spirits lift again. "It'll probably be just as hard." They plummeted again. "You see, McCoy will have to agree to do the surgery. That in and of itself should be hard enough. Then, he'll have to dig up x-rays of that time he got shot by a flint lock. We took x-rays of his lungs just to be safe that he hadn't been injured there. Then, he'd have to take x-rays of his lung now, find out what he has to mend and or replace, re attach all the nerve endings, make sure they're operational, regenerate the skin tissue, make sure that he still retains the same amount of flexibility, and make sure that Spock doesn't die during the surgery form blood loss or traumatic stress." The two men looked at her slightly horrified.

"Oh yes, he also has to make sure that Spock doesn't wake up during surgery due to engagement of psi points because that can kill him with shock, and make sure that he doesn't try to go into a healing trance because if he does, he can slip into death just as easily and quickly as if we had stabbed his heart." Kirk looked at her and slumped sideways out of his chair, laying unconscious on the floor. M'Benga looked at her, McCoy who was standing in the doorway of his office, and back at the captain. He seemed at a loss for words. Christine shrugged apologetically.

"He needed to be out of it for this, doctor," she explained. "I couldn't think of a better idea to get him to pass out or leave."

"I've seen Jim in action and he never loses his nerve or crumbles under stress. Now, he collapses at the medical risks that go with a surgery that'll save his best friend's life." McCoy shook his head. "What will become of the _Enterprise_ when this is all over?" He gestured for M'Benga to come over and they moved Kirk into his office. They came back out, dressed in the medical robe for operations.

"Let's get this surgery done with," he said grimly.

A few hours later, McCoy was standing at the side of his friend as he watched the Vulcan's vital signs rise and dip in a rather steady margin. He breathed a sigh of relief. Christine looked up at him and smiled, actually smiled, from the reports she was filling out. She hadn't smiled for the past day; instead, she had been sick with stress and worry for the Vulcan. He knew that she harbored a feeling for the first officer and knew how much pain she had felt when Spock had lain there, closer to death than he had ever been before.

"How is he doctor?" she whispered, careful not to disturb Spock. "Is he doing all right?"

McCoy smiled and nodded.

"He's doin' fine, Christine. He'll make it." Her brilliant smile filled the room. Deep inside, McCoy felt a twinge of guilt.

There was a hiss as the door to McCoy's office opened. A sleepy Kirk stumbled forward and immediately made his way over to the bio bed that his first officer was laying on.

McCoy walked over and laid a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"He'll recover Jim. We performed the surgery while you were still asleep." Kirk's eyes opened wide.

"How long was I passed out?" he asked, horrified.

"Eight hours. Lung repairs aren't quick and easy. And I couldn't exactly tell you, unless you can hear in your sleep. You passed out as soon as I came out of my office. You needed that sleep, Jim. You were over stressed, what with Aislinn and Spock and the possibility of Romulans behind everything."

"Bones, I don't need a recap. All I need to know is if Spock'll be alright," he muttered, massaging his temple. "He's the best first officer in the fleet you know." McCoy nodded and looked over at their still comrade.

"So far, he's showing good signs of recovery. Why don't you get up to the bridge and do your job, Jim. I'll notify you if there is any monumental change in his status," McCoy said gently and steered the captain to the door. "Off you go, Jim." Jim nodded and walked into the hallway. McCoy looked over at Spock.

"All right you stubborn hobgoblin. Let's see what you've got."

In the high security vault in the brig, Aislinn was pacing back and forth in her cell. She could feel the young ensign's eyes on her, watching her every move. She didn't know why he was so concerned about her, but it was becoming slightly disconcerting. Apparently, she had done something wrong. She had been changed out of her torn and ratty clothing from the devastated colony, and was now dressed in a spare medic's uniform. She felt that the blue suited her. She thought back to the young Chinese yeoman who had come into her cell and given her the uniform. She had tried to talk to her, but the crew member hadn't really said anything. Until she had seen the tangled mess that was her hair. "Oh, sweetheart!" she had cried. "I'll be right back with a brush for that hair!" She had turned and hurried down the corridor. Aislinn had walked over to the doorway and looked down the hall. The other ensign, the more jumpy one, had immediately stepped forward. "Get away from there!" he had said unsteadily. "Back away from the door!"  
Aislinn frowned: the force field was up, so why was he so worried? "I am of no danger to you," she had commented, not understanding the anger that came with the young man's advance. "I cannot get through the force field." The ensign had eyed her doubtfully and had backed away from her. "All right. But no funny business!" he had threatened. "Or, I'll shoot you with this phaser!" Aislinn eyed him in a slightly confused manner. These humans were rather stupid, she thought. She sighed.  
"There's a force field between us. It would simply rebound and kill or stun you. You are behaving highly illogically-" "Don't you dare use that phrase!" he had shouted and Aislinn had stumbled back hands on the sides of her head and eyes screwed shut. Warmth had covered her hands. Emerald substance, oozing over her hand. Cold steel of a knife had slipped through her fingers.  
She fell against the back wall. "No..." she had whimpered, falling against the wall and sliding down into a curled up position. In an instant, she had been back on her feet, dismissing the disturbing image. Now she was pacing back and forth when the young woman had come in.  
"Now then, you just sit still and I'll untangle that mess for you." Aislinn smiled charmingly and sat own where the ensign could reach her. As the brush made its way through her tangled hair, Aislinn looked around at her and asked, innocently,  
"Why is everyone angry at me? What have I done?" The ensign's hand hesitated mid stroke before going on in its task.  
"Well, Aislinn," she said softly. "I expect that the captain will be down later to talk to you about that." She smiled. "I'm sure you didn't mean it. Would you like your hair in a bun?"  
Aislinn smiled again.  
"Yes please," she answered. She looked forward and allowed that small thoughtful crease to appear on her forehead again. "You're sure I didn't mean what?"  
"What you did, sweetheart. I'm sure you didn't mean to...do what you did. You're too sweet to do something like that." The rest of the hair brushing session went by in silence. When she was done, and as she left, Aislinn rose and resumed her pacing.  
I'm sure you didn't mean to...do what you did. You're too sweet to do something like that. The blood, dark and emerald oozed over her hands and the cold blade reappeared. You're too sweet to do something like that...Aislinn paused in her pacing and mused aloud,  
"But what have I done?"

Kirk walked down the hallway and entered the turbolift.

"Brig level," he said and the lift began going down. His mind was full of questions for the child, and he had no idea where to start. He knew that he had to tread carefully on in this matter. Any question wrongly phrased could set her off it seemed. But he needed to know the reason. He needed to know who was behind her creation, and why she tried to kill Spock. The doors to the turbolift hissed open and Kirk walked down the corridor to the high security vault at the end of the hallway. There, he found Ensign Marple seated against the wall staring straight ahead. His head turned towards him at the sound of his approaching footsteps.

Even from this distance, Kirk could see the young man's eyes widen as he saw who was coming. He scrambled to his feet and immediately stood at attention.

"A-all quiet, sir," he stammered. "Just been pacing back and forth, mutterin' to herself."

"At ease, Marple." He relaxed a bit. "Quiet you say?"

"Aye sir. As stable as you or me sir." Kirk nodded and then turned to face the cell. The girl was in fact pacing across the room, seemingly unaware of her surroundings, lost in her own thoughts.

"Let me into the cell with her. I need to ask her some questions." Marple looked at his captain as if he had misheard him.

"Are you sure that you want to be doing that captain?" he asked warily. "After all, we all know what she did to Mr. Spock, and she is a mite unpredictable-"

"Ensign Marple," interrupted Kirk. "You have your orders." The ensign nodded his head apologetically.

"Aye, sir. Sorry." He deactivated the shield and the girl paused in her pacing. She looked at Kirk once before returning to her pacing. Kirk followed suite, and soon they were pacing in circles directly across from each other.

There was an awkward moment of silence as the shield was reactivated and the only sound was its gentle hum of electric charge.

"Why don't you sit down, Aislinn," offered Kirk, gesturing to the bench in the corner of the room, using his trademark grin to attempt to sooth her. Aislinn eyed him impassively.

"I wish to remain standing," she replied in the same tone. "I know why you have come. You wish to talk to me. Ask me questions. I wish to answer, and ask a few of my own."

Kirk was momentarily astounded at the amount of poise and assurance she carried with her. It seemed to radiate from her very person and fill the room, making his ego and bravado small in comparison. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and casually opened his mouth to speak.

"No, captain," she interrupted, her hypnotic tone filling the silence. "You assume incorrectly_. _I do not know why I am here, in the brig, of the Federation starship _Enterprise_." Kirk felt a momentary sense of unease in his stomach. He hadn't made a single sound or indication of what his question, let alone the fact that he was going to ask a question, was: _I assume you know why you are here?_And she hadn't even looked his way. They were still circling each other. How did she know his question?

"I didn't know your question, Captain Kirk. I simply inferred that that would be the first question you asked. As I assumed that you would be puzzling how I 'knew' your question," she said in that same eery calm way. This time she looked over at Jim and he tried very hard not to shiver under her dark eyes. "Proceed with your interrogation."

"How have you been treated so far?" he asked making up questions on the spot, trying to throw her off guard.

"With mixed feelings captain," she countered smoothly. "Animosity for a crime that I committed, yet with pity. Pity for being so small and fragile and innocent. Curiosity swells in every look I get from passer-byes who get their first glimpse of me. How could one so small, so sweet and so seemingly harmless commit the crime which she is accused? All of these emotions cloud your mind captain." Kirk looked at her, unease building.

"Do you know what your crime is?"

"No, Captain, I do not. I have no recollection of anything which occurred after the incidents that took place on the planets surface." Her voice grew more heated. "If I knew of my crime, I would have been able to answer your question of why I was in the brig!" Now, Kirk's mind was racing.

"Tell me, Aislinn. Where are you from?" he asked. She stopped and swung to face him.

"They sent you didn't they?" she whispered. "Prying hands...whispering voices...questions, questions, wanting to know, questions!" Her voice was escalating and she looked at her hands as she shrank back into a corner. At the doorway, the ensign stood at the ready, hand poised above the button that would deactivate the shield. "You can't just stick needles into my eyes and ask me what I see!" she screamed.

"You are a murderer!"

"No!" she screamed. "Murdering is wrong! It goes against my laws! I don't murder!"

"Yes you do! You murdered my friend! Where are you from?" he asked again, looking at her harshly. "Who made you?" The effect was instantaneous. She straightened and looked at him, poise recovered, all signs of her breakdown gone. She took in the ready stance of the captain and the ensign outside. She looked down at her hands and seemed to change her voice. It was soft, yet carrying. And underlying everything, a cold steel.

"That which is done, cannot be undone. She who you were is not she who you are. That what was learned, cannot be...unlearned. All taught, all learned, all make thee. You are," she looked up, "Chotwl'."

Kirk barely had time to comprehend the Klingon word before she launched herself at him and knocked him over. Her arm came up and down with blinding speed. Kirk felt nothing when her arm made impact. Then, where there was light, warmth, and brightness, there was nothing but cold and darkness. Nothing at all, not even the ground beneath his back, nor the pressure of the girl upon his chest.


	4. Chapter 4

McCoy sighed in frustration as he looked down upon his fool hardy captain.

"I don't know what luck you live by, but let's hope it lasts the night, you fool," he muttered. There was a nasty fracture to his collar bone that had just missed his neck. Whatever the girl had been doing, she had been trying to kill. He remembered those horrid first moments when Spock had screamed in his unconscious state, clearly yelling in Vulcan. The tone was one of desperation, pain, and other highly volatile emotions. He had no idea what was wrong, but it took him, M'Benga, Nurse Chapel, and Scotty (who had just stopped by to check on his superior officer) to hold him down. Then, immediately afterwards, the young ensign on duty guarding the cell with Aislinn had called and said medical emergency. _Get down here quick!_ The words still echoed in his head.

He had thought it had been Aislinn and that the girl had established a telepathic link in the failed mind meld with the Vulcan, which would explain his cries. He hadn't expected to arrive down there to see Jim bleeding from a wound close to the neck and the girl seated in the corner meditating. Quite calmly. He hadn't expected to need to bring Jim into the ICU for four hours of intense surgery to move the shards of bone away from his throat.

And Spock. McCoy sighed just at the thought. The poor Vulcan had been thrashing and trying to break free from his restraints even in unconsciousness. Eventually, Nurse Chapel ended up sitting by him, constantly touching psi points and flooding him with positive and calming emotions in her attempt to bring him under control. The tight expression of fear on her face showed just how much she cared for the Vulcan and the fear in her for his recovery.

Now, she had exhausted herself and had fallen asleep in the chair beside him. And it had worked. McCoy looked in on them and smiled slightly and the now peaceful Vulcan and dedicated Nurse. He looked in briefly on the captain. He would be back on duty soon. Then, he snuck off to his quarters. He had a holocam to find.

When Nurse Chapel woke, she found herself asleep beside the first officer. Startled, she sat up immediately and looked at his vital signs. Well, at least they weren't all over the scale like they had been during that attack of some sort. But they were low again, too low. She smiled tightly and took his hand in hers. She had never tried this before. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this...she thought. Then, she plunged head first into it.

_Mr. Spock,_ she whispered. _Mr. Spock, can you hear me sir?_

_Nurse?_ It was hoarse and rough. The response was faint, but it was there. She felt her heart soar and her emotions burst out of her. Happiness, excitement, worry flooded her and him. She was so-

_Nurse, PLEASE! _His pained and loud response jolted her out of her trance.

She gasped and looked around. No one had noticed what she was doing. She looked back at the still Vulcan. He was perfectly still. She had gone in too strong. She had hurt him, not helped him. She tried again, this time, more slowly.

_I'm sorry, Mr. Spock,_ she whispered. _I didn't mean to harm you. That won't happen again, I promise. _Nothing. _Mr. Spock, please respond, it isn't funny. Mr. Spock?_

_I hear you. Just barely. _He hesitated._ You do realize, Nurse Chapel, that you need not whisper in a mind meld? It makes it difficult to hear you._

_I'm sorry, Mr. Spock. _She gathered her thoughts in an orderly fashion, and raised her voice so that she was speaking normally. _Listen, Jim's been hurt._

_?! _She could feel the barrage of questions that were sure to come tumbling out of his mind at any moment. She hurried to placated them as she felt him struggle to wake.

_He's okay, he'll be fine. Listen, the girl said something before she attacked him and at approximately the same time, you started screaming, shouting in Vulcan._There was a contemplative silence. _Do you know why? What happened? Did you know what was going on in the brig?_

_I – I do not know...I have no recollection of...that incident._

_Think deep, Mr. Spock. Search your memory. There must be something, a slight blip in your psi interaction. Something? Anything? _The contemplative silence returned, and she could feel his deep concentration. She could feel him "shake his head" in the meld.

_Nothing. Wait. _Christine felt her excitement and anticipation build up and she tried not to over power him with emotions. _There is something. A vague memory...Pleas in Vulcan..._He went silent and she could barely hear or feel any sign of his mind.

_Spock! Spock! Spock, snap out of it! _Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard the medical panel's alarm go off. _Spock! Damn it all! _

She jerked herself out of the mind meld and found that Spock's readings were nearly at the bottom. She quickly rose and unsteadily made her way over to the medical cabinet. She fished out a hypo and marched over to the Vulcan.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Spock," she muttered and plunged the stimulant hypo into his arm. Immediately, the signs leveled back to their normal positions and he came closer to consciousness. M'Benga and McCoy came running around the corner and looked at her in surprise.

"What did ya do Christine?" he asked, his voice coming out harsher than was necessary. He saw the hypo. "We heard the alarm, what the hell were you doing?!" He grabbed her arms and shook her slightly; startled, Christine stepped back and dropped the hypo. "What the hell happened?"

"Doctor, I – I was just -" she looked helplessly at the Vulcan and M'Benga, who was taking a scan of his brain and psi points.

"You were talking to him, weren't you Christine?" asked M'Benga straightening. "What happened? What did he say?" She looked down.

"I – I was asking him about why he was screaming and what he was screaming. He didn't remember, but then, he...he looked deeper and...sort of mentally shut down." M'Benga nodded thoughtfully.

McCoy nodded and made to leave the room. He was stopped by something clinging to his sleeve. He looked down and saw the pale, slender hand of his Vulcan friend. He spun around and saw the Vulcan struggling to speak, eyes half-closed.

"Spock," he whispered softly. "Spock, how are you?" He looked at McCoy's face and the doctor was stunned at how vulnerable he looked. "What's wrong?" he moved back to the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress.

"Doctor...Jim?" he rasped, eyes slipping closed.

"He's doin' a lot better. He'll be back on duty by tomorrow. He's out of it right now, courtesy of the hypo. I'm going to give Aislinn a visit. Any advice?" Spock looked at him as if he hadn't heard what the doctor had said. McCoy frowned slightly, and looked at the panel. The Vulcan's body temperature was off: he was too warm. He looked at Spock and noted with worry the dilated pupils and the green fluid gathering at the corner of his mouth. Spock grabbed McCoy's arm. He took a scanner and realized that he had a rather high fever.

"Never underestimate her." McCoy nodded, pressing the hypo with the antibiotic for the fever that came with possible infection in his lung. "Tell Jim...the ones who...Aislinn," he tried to fight the drowsiness and confusion that came with the antibiotic. "The ones who tested on her. They were Talosians."

Then, a loud thump was heard and everyone looked over to the doorway. Kirk was laying flat on the floor, knocked out by stress and the lack of sleep.

"Please tend to him, Doctor," whispered Spock, his voice hoarse. "I'll be fine." Christine looked at Spock and began filling him in on his condition.

"You'll be okay now," she said. "No one except us in this room...knows this, but, when Aislinn stabbed you, your lung was punctured in the process. We fixed you as well as we could." She handed him a report on his injuries.

"We fixed you up all the way to a small tear in your left lung. You'll need to meditate or go into a healing trance to fix that one, though Mr. Spock –"

"Why did I have that fever?"

"You had a slight infection in your lung where you had been stabbed," she explained softly. "The hypo took care of that."

"Who's been in the room during my stay?"

"Many people. Scotty, Jim, Uhura, Chekov, McCoy, myself, and Sulu once or twice." Spock frowned slightly.

"How many people know of my condition?"

"M'Benga, McCoy, Kirk, and myself," she responded. "Are you going to tell anyone else? Is that why you're asking?"

"No, I just remember someone melding with me...I don't remember who though."

"That...that was me, Mr. Spock," she said, apologetic. "I shouldn't have done that. Do you...remember anything from the meld?" she asked. "Like what you were saying in Vulcan?" Spock's face darkened ever so slightly. He looked from her face back to the plain, boring, white ceiling of sick bay. His eyes, usually the only thing that could show his emotions, were walls blocking everything.

"No. And I do not wish to remember." Christine nodded and pat his hand once.

"Why don't you fix up your lung now?" she whispered before moving away from him. She watched from the doorway as Spock closed his eyes and the readings nearly hit bottom again. "Sleep well Mr. Spock," she whispered and smiled slightly. "Oh yes, I know you can hear me and you are probably thinking that that is a highly illogical statement seeing as you aren't asleep but in a form of self induced hypnosis." She tilted her head. "You're a bad influence, Mr. Spock, you know that? Perfectly logical and it seems to be rubbing off on me. Imagine: a logical nurse who is always patching you up. You won't be able to argue anymore." Her small smile broke into a grin as she was sure that she saw a spike in his mental stimulus. Yep, he was rubbing off on her.

It was night time on the star ship and everyone except the night shift were turning in for the night. Everyone was succumbing to the darkness, the comfort that came with the temptation to sleep and surrender one's consciousness to dreams.

But there were two people on board who weren't sleeping.

_That which is done, cannot be undone. She who you were is not she who you are. That what was learned, cannot be...unlearned. All taught, all learned, all make thee. You are Chotwl'. _Spock winced slightly in his trance. _Him. He'll get me...he'll take me back! Don't let him!...Bastard! damn YOU! You can't just take me and look into my mind! BASTARD! MURDERER!...LIAR! _Aislinn's face flashed in his mind, a brief image. She was looking at him from the corner of her eye in the dark hall way on Sinclair 12. In her hand was an axe, dripping with blood. Her face was haunted. Then, it was gone. All of this in a matter of a second. _They told me that, then and then...then...He's a murderer! He killed all of those little children and their families! ALL! _

Then, he saw the worst part: himself, kneeling above a small boy at the end of the hall who was moving feebly on the floor. A dagger rose and fell in his hand and he turned to look down the hallway; his eyes were black, completely black, and red blood stained his lips and dripped from the corners of his mouth. That too passed and came in a matter of seconds, but none the less frightening, disturbing, clear, or grotesque.

With a startled yell, Spock sat bolt upright and tried to calm his racing nerves. He laid bak down and found that he was breathing heavily. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind; all that came up was the frightening scene of himself. Finally, he decided that enough was enough.

Unsteadily, he sat up and pulled the IV out of his arm. Quietly, he got to his feet and walked out of sick bay. It seemed too easy. He got into the turbo lift and said in his hoarse tone,

"Brig level." The elevator began going down and Spock balanced himself against the wall. He was feeling slightly dizzy, but that was to be expected after what he had been through. He had successfully healed his punctured lung and knew that he would get hell for this from not only the captain, but the doctors too. It didn't matter. The doors slid open and Spock walked down the hall.

"Mr. Spock!" He was surprised at the amount of joy that came with that voice. Ensign Marple came walking forward and the expression on his face turned to one of confusion.

"Mr. Spock," he began, "Why are you still in the medical tunic?"

"I'm not technically cleared from sickbay," he reluctantly said. He couldn't lie and not responding would send red alerts off in the man's mind. "But this is urgent."

"I'm sorry Mr. Spock. If you don't have clearance, you'll have to go back."

"I assure you, Ensign that I am perfectly fine."

"The hell you are," came a new voice. "I didn't just spend twelve hours pouring my mind into you to calm you down, sew you back together, and other wise save your sorry hide to have you kill yourself." Spock came very close to sighing.

Nurse Chapel came walking out of the shadows from the far side of the brig.

"Thought I'd find you down here. Now, if you are so intent on talking to Aislinn...I guess I'll just have to medically supervise you." Spock felt a deep sense of appreciation for the head nurse. She really had a grasp on priorities.

Sooner than he would have liked, Spock found himself standing before the cell of Aislinn. And she was standing there, waiting.

"I was wondering when you'd arrive," she said simply.

"And why is that?" Spock asked.

"Because you are like me. Alone and looking for answers." She stepped up to the shield and placed her hand flat on it, sending sparks and electric discharge in all directions. She laughed as Spock took a step back and pulled her hand back, unfazed. "And I'm ready to give them." With a sense of dark premonition, he deactivated the shield and stepped in with Nurse Chapel.

"I've finally come to confront you now for two reasons," began Spock, leaning against the wall. "The first is that I have been in sickbay, having my lung repaired from where you stabbed me." He waited to see if there was going to be any sort of reaction: there was none. "I see you are no longer in denial about that action which you performed."

"Are you still in denial about yours?" she asked back. Spock raised his eyebrows in an impressed way. She had a quick tongue. "Have you come to terms with that massacre you committed on Sinclair 12?" Spock ignored her.

"The second reason is that I believe you sent me a memory." Aislinn was on her guard now. "Ensign Marple?" he called.

"Yes Mr. Spock?" he asked.

"Was she making any sort of sound or doing anything before I arrived?"

"Aye sir. About five minutes before you came down, she was sleeping and tossing and turning."

Spock looked at her thoughtfully.

"Come here, Aislinn. I promise I won't hurt you," he whispered. "I need to meld with you to show you what you showed me. I need to know if that is my imagination or your memory." Tears seemed to be forming in Aislinn's eyes, but she nodded and sat down on the edge of her bed. Spock went over and sat down next to her. With one hand, he grabbed her's and gently held it. With the other, he touched the psi points on her face.

_That which is done, cannot be undone. She who you were is not she who you are. That what was learned, cannot be...unlearned. All taught, all learned, all make thee. You are Chotwl'. Aislinn's face flashed in their minds, a brief image. She was looking at them from the corner of her eye in the dark hallway on Sinclair 12. In her hand was an axe, dripping with blood. Her face was haunted. All of this in the matter of a second. _

_Then, they saw the worst part: Spock, kneeling above a small boy at the end of the hall who was moving feebly on the floor. A dagger rose and fell in his hand and he turned to look down the hallway; his eyes were black, completely black, and red blood stained his lips and dripped from the corners of his mouth._

"NO!" screamed Aislinn, falling off of the bed and curling up on the floor. "No, not again please. Not again!" she moaned. Spock crouched on the ground and gently placed a hand on her arm. He saw the sleeve was ripped, revealing irritated skin around the tattoo as if she had been scratching and rubbing it.

"Aislinn," he whispered. "I know who killed those people. I don't know why they did it, but I know they did. It wasn't me." She looked at him and scowled.

"Liar. You saw yourself. You saw yourself kill that little boy!" Her voice broke and she threw her head back and screamed in true anguish and sorrow.

"Did the people look like this?" he asked, placing his hands on the sides of her face and sent her a strong image of a Talosian.

Screams resonated in his head. A dirty operation room. He was strapped down and looking up at the faces of two Romulans with phasers to the backs of two Talosians' heads. One of the pairs moved out of his view and returned holding a strange instrument. The Talosians placed them on the sides of his head and hooked them up to a machine under close Romulan surveillance. Then, they flipped a few switches and pain coursed into his mind, ripping and tearing at his thoughts. He felt his eyes becoming swollen with tears of pain. His body convulsed and strained against the bonds, saturated with a venom that he couldn't stop. He felt his thoughts ripped out and thrown back in place, tainted with dark memories. Methods of murder filled his mind. Methods of attack and moving without being seen. Fighting moves and a new creed filled his mind. _That which is done, cannot be undone. He who you were is not he who you are. That what was learned, cannot be...unlearned. All taught, all learned, all make thee. _Then came the name. _Chotwl'_. The red hot branding iron came into contact with his skin. His scream filled the air and he felt a burning sensation on his arm. He looked down and saw his skin turning black and a design seemed to be forming. His skin burned and seemed ready to peel off. Then, he felt nothing. Nothing at all.


	5. Chapter 5

Spock opened his eyes to find Christine Chapel looking down in his face. She sighed in relief and helped him sit up. Then, she struck him square across the face.

"Are you insane?" she hissed. "Melding with her?!"

"Quite possibly, Nurse," he admitted.

"You just got out of sickbay, do you have an overwhelming desire to go back or something?!"

Suddenly, Aislinn came over to him. Her face was streaked with tears.

She grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet as easily as he would have picked up a box of new science lab equipment.

He stumbled to regain his footing and Nurse Chapel and Aislinn balanced him.

"How's your lung holding out?" whispered Christine, softly. Spock looked at her.

"I'll have to get it checked out again," he responded in the same tone. He looked at Aislinn. "Why have you suddenly tried to befriend me?" he asked, curious.

"Because I have found that I was in the wrong. You have too many friends to be part of something like that. You couldn't have killed that poor Vulcan boy."

"Vulcan?" asked Spock, puzzled. "There were no registered Vulcans on Sinclair 12, Aislinn."

"Yes there were. His name was Tirang and he was the sweetest boy ever. I understood his pain, the burden of being –" she stopped abruptly and looked down. Christine wrapped her arms around the girl and whispered soothingly,

"No more secrets, Aislinn. We can help you. You just have to tell us what happened. Tell us what happened and we'll help you." Aislinn nodded and whispered her tale.

"They took us, the seven of us. We were frightened, you could sense it. We were ashamed, we weren't supposed to show emotion, but we couldn't help it. They took us and experimented on us one by one. I was the last one. I had to hear their screams as they too were changed and tortured into emotion. When they were returned to our cell, they were dead, dead and...and changed. Human, the last vestiges of their heritage gone in that infernal lab." Tears filled her eyes and she began shaking in trapped pain and emotions. "We promised each other then that we wouldn't give up that we would fight to the end to keep ourselves. Me and Tirang were the only ones who survived. He was taken first and thrown back in the cell. I was confused. He was dead, cold, stiff, and human like the rest of them. That was when my controls slipped the first time. I – I held him and cried and cried until I fell asleep. I woke up and found that Tirang was laying next to me on the floor breathing and very much alive. I couldn't understand it.

"All that mattered was that we were alive. We planned our escape, but they came in and took me away to the operation room. But I didn't die. They said it had something to do with my manipulable mind. They said I was special, better than the others. I – I don't know what happened, but the next thing I knew, I was hiding in a crate with Tirang and we were destined for the colony Sinclair 12. There – there was blood all over my clothing. I knew it wasn't mine or Tirang's. I – I think I killed them in the lab. They changed me, made me a murderer, gave me a creed, a name everyone will fear one day. A name they'll fear because I failed." She looked up at Spock and Christine. "How am I doing so far?"

"Good, dear," whispered Christine, "Just keep talking."

"We arrived on Sinclair 12 and...they came, they followed in a ship. A great ship that looked like something out of hell. They landed and came in..."

"The Romulans?" Spock asked sharply.

"No...no worse, much worse. They worked for the Romulans who control the Talosians. Devils from the darkest corner hell. They were the guards, the warriors, the raiders. They were the ones who attacked Sinclair 12. They came in," she whispered, her eyes growing wide and her voice becoming hollow and automatic. "They killed them all, screaming in their...their animal voices; they wouldn't stop killing until they had the two Vulcans back. We knew that they were lying. So we hid. But then, they got to the nursery. The children –" she broke down sobbing and rocking back and forth on her heels. But Spock was stuck at one clashing factor in her story.

"They killed them all, or almost all," she continued thickly. "They said that they would kill the rest of them if we didn't come out. Then, then we heard it." She stopped.

"Heard what?" asked Spock gently.

"You. I had attended one of your seminars on Vulcan when you were there. I knew your voice and I knew of your kindness, strength, diplomatic skills...I thought you could help us. We walked out slowly and we saw you standing there...but it wasn't you. Your eyes were black and you held one of the dead children in your hands. She was mutilated and dead and..." she began sobbing again.

"You came after us so fast I didn't have time to react. But Tirang...poor, poor Tirang. Why'd he do it?!" she screamed, crying so hard that even the ensign outside began looking worried and sorry for her. "You were going to...he was going to take me back to the Talosians and Tirang...he came after me and threw Tirang aside. I was losing the fight against you and then Tirang," despite her sorrow, there was a glimmer of pride in her eyes,

"You can change our appearance, blood color, anatomy, but you can't change who we are. Tirang killed one of Them in a second and hit you in the back with an axe. He hit you again and again and I thought he had killed you. But then, you got back to your feet and – you punched him in the head and he just fell down. He looked up at you and I fought you back again with his axe. But you took me and threw me down the hall. Everyone was laughing at me. I got up and looked around for you...I was dazed, I wasn't thinking straight!" she cried.

"I looked over where you had thrown me and I saw you...I saw you stab Tirang." She looked at the floor hollowly. "I could hear his scream from where I stood. I – I don't know what happened that time either, but next thing I knew, everyone around me was dead and I was...I – I tried to wake him up...but he didn't get up and –" she began sobbing again.

"Aislinn, what do you mean two 'Vulcans'?" he asked slowly. She looked at him.

"Me and Tirang, we were Vulcans once. The Romulans and Talosians developed a method to turn us into Terran humans. We tried to fight it, screen ourselves, but it didn't matter. We were too weak, and the machine was too strong."

"What is your Vulcan name, Aislinn?" asked Spock. She looked at him and said,

"I don't remember." She hugged him tightly, his strong arms wrapping around her and shielding her from everyone and everything that could harm her. It brought back memories of someone long gone. She wished she could remember who that was.

When McCoy entered his sickbay in the morning the least he could do was refrain from swearing in English. However, swearing in every other language he knew was perfectly fine for this situation. The IV that had been in Spock was no longer in Spock and the bed that Spock had been laying on no longer held Spock.

"Damn hobgoblin, I knew I shouldn't have left him without constant surveillance last night!" He stormed out of his sickbay, people lunging out of his way. He entered a turbolift that led to the bridge and was yelling even before the doors had opened.

There was a loud and muffled shouting noise that was coming from the turbo lift and the whole bridge crew turned to the doors.

"– KIRK YOUR SON OF A BITCH, GREEN-BLOODED, MORONIC FRIEND IS GOING TO GET IT WHEN I –"

"Yes, Doctor McCoy?" came the smooth reply from the viewing screen that stopped the doctor cold. "What were you saying?"

"I – I, uh, guess I'll just be leaving now, captain. Uh, call me up to the bridge when...sorry Admiral." And with that, McCoy beat a hasty retreat for the door. On the viewing screen, Admiral Cartwright gave a large grin.

"Well, Mr. Spock, care to explain that one?" he asked. The Vulcan raised his eyebrow and rose from his station.

"A need arose that could not wait for morning so, I simply left sickbay without the doctor's notification. However, I did have the permission of the head nurse. I can only assume that the good doctor believes I left sickbay for the sake of getting out of that section of the ship." He sat back down and the Admiral smiled.

"You sure seem to have a talent for getting under his skin Mr. Spock. And welcome back to duty. We got Jim's message that you had suffered a rather serious injury."

"Not as serious as the injury inflicted upon this colony or upon the child which Captain Kirk has called you for." Admiral Cartwright took the hint and turned his attention to the impatiently waiting Kirk.

"Admiral Cartwright, the entire Sinclair 12 colony has been destroyed, slaughtered viciously. We don't know how or why but we are going to find out. They appeared to have been wiped out to twenty individuals and that is assuming those twenty are alive in hiding."

"Yes, Kirk, we got that much from your last transmission. What about this girl?"

"There is a mystery girl that we picked up on the colony. She was the one who notified us in the first place that something was wrong. We beamed down, found the whole colony dead except for her. She was apparently unharmed, but mentally unstable. She had bouts of violence and afterwards had no recollection of them. We can only assume that Aislinn –"

"Aislinn?" Cartwright leaned forward and began speaking urgently. "Kirk did you just say Aislinn? As in this girl?" He held up a picture of the girl they were holding in their brig. She was human, but seemed distant as if drugged.

"Yes sir," said Kirk uncertainly, catching Spock's "please lie!" look too late.

"Jim, make for the nearest Starbase now. Stop for no one and nothing. And whatever you do, keep her sedated and in that damn brig!"

"Yes sir," Kirk responded and felt Spock relax slightly at his station.

"Has she spoken to any one?"

"Besides the usual screaming of you can't kill me that comes with any sort of battle trauma?"

"Yes, besides that."

"No sir, she hasn't spoken to any one."

"Very good. If she had, we would have had to take more extensive measures. Cartwright out." The screen went black and Kirk turned to Uhura.

"Is the connection shut off, Uhura?" he muttered lowly.

"No sir," she breathed back. "Visual is off, but his auditory is still open. Like he's waiting."

"Shut it down," he ordered.

"Shut down sir." Kirk went back to his seat and sat down heavily.

"May I ask, Mr. Spock, why you were so keen on making sure I lied to Cartwright?"

"Because we can trust no one, sir. Not even each other," he said grimly.

"What do you mean?" asked Sulu from his post at helm. "Why can't we trust each other?"

"Because some of us might not really be here. Talosians, Captain. They were the ones who tested on Aislinn. I spoke to her last night."

"Spock, his voice..." came a soft voice directly above the captain. Kirk looked up and screamed before tripping over Chekov, who looked ready to pass out, and crashing into the railing.

Aislinn was stretched across the ceiling, held in place by the pressure she was applying to the sides of the small rectangular indent above the captain's chair. She released the pressure and dropped lightly to her feet. She was dressed in Vulcan clothing that seemed to resemble the meditation robe Spock had.

"Security, grab her!" yelled Kirk. At the same time, Spock yelled a counter order.

"No!" The whole bridge went quiet as Spock realized what he had done. "Please, Jim, she is harmless. You can ask Christine Chapel, she was there for the whole conversation."

"What conversation?" Spock took a deep breath and began talking.

"Aislinn was a Vulcan." Uhura took out her ear piece and rose in surprise.

"The Talosians changed her and fellow Vulcan children in a lab. They are human now in every single way except talents. There was only one other boy who survived with her and he is down on the planet, dead. You must realize that she is harmless and it is those who desperately want her back who are. We are now harboring a known fugitive."

"Spock, I have to turn her in."

"Turn her in, and I will do everything in my power to free her." Aislinn looked between the two clashing friends and stepped forward.

"I know it is hard to trust me, Captain Kirk. I attacked you and I am sorry for it. I couldn't control the hunger or the drives that the Talosians had placed in me. And Spock...well he can explain what happened between him and me." Kirk shook his head.

"I'm sorry Aislinn." He gestured for the security personnel to grab her.

"No! Don't provoke me! I can't help it! Don't!" They grabbed her roughly and threw her against the wall. Spock started forward but stopped as one of the security guards pointed a phaser at him. Christine Chapel walked into the room and soon her vocal opinion in the matter was heard.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'LL SCARE HER AND THEN, WE'LL ALL GET KILLED! STOP!" Aislinn started to panic and Spock and Chapel saw the tell-tale signs in her. She was hyperventilating, staring around wildly, and her eyes seemed to start to get that fog in them.

"Aislinn, honey!" yelled Christine, "Calm down! You're going to be okay! You're a Vulcan. There is no pain! No pain! Aislinn calm down!"

"Aislinn look at me! Concentrate on Tirang!" said Spock, urgently. Aislinn pressed her hands to her face and began screaming.

"Tor ri dash-tor em! Sanoi pekhau, trasha em sa'awek! Tor ri dash-tor em! Tor ri rubah em, trasha em sa'awek! Sanoi, tor ri dash-tor em! Tor ri dash-tor em!" Christine went white as she looked at Spock and she knew she was right.

Those were the words that Spock had yelled in his unconsciousness. The Vulcan's mind immediately began translating.

_Don't hurt me. Please stop, leave me alone. Don't hurt me. Don't kill me, leave me alone. Please don't hurt me. No, don't hurt me_.

Then, one of the ensigns went flying and smashed into a wall, leaving a dent. The whole bridge went quiet and stared at Aislinn. She was panting and standing there, hands on her knees, doubled over.

"Fine," she said, standing upright. "Kill me now. Shoot me with your phaser, set to maximum strength. On kill." She snatched one from the belt of one of the guards. She changed the settings and held it out, handle first, in Spock's direction.

The Vulcan looked at it and then at her in mild horror and surprise. "Because if you trap me, I will never stop fighting. I can't stop." Nobody moved in the light of the developing scene. There was silence and Aislinn's eyes began to fill with tears.

"Do it!" she screamed. Spock shook his head. With an angry scream, she took the gun and aimed it at herself.

"Aislinn, don't!" he yelled. He grabbed the phaser and threw her arm at the ceiling. "Aislinn, don't do this. You are not a bad person. You are good. Look at me and tell me if I am lying t'nash-veh ha'su." Her gaze widened again and she looked at him, almost warily. Something clicked behind her eyes.

"T'nash-veh ha'su? Ha'su?" she whispered, looking at the Vulcan. "Sileia..." she grabbed Spock's arms "Sileia! T'nash-veh whl'q'n ahm!" Then, she hugged Spock fiercely. "Thank you. Thank you so much..." Christine smiled slightly and Spock gave everyone on the bridge a look that said quite plainly and clearly as he awkwardly hugged her back,

_Anyone who so much as touches this child will regret it to the end of their lives, which I will make inordinately short._


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, Aislinn was given free run of the ship. Or, as she was known now, Sileia.

"Hello lassie. Glad to see ye somewhere other than in the brig," said Scotty one day as she was watching them work in engineering. She was perched precariously on the railing thirty feet above the engineering floor like a Terran squirrel. Sileia smiled and walked on the railing high above the deck.

"Oi, lassie? I don' think tha's exactly the safest thing to be doin'!" he called up. Sileia smiled and waved at him.

"Thank you for your concern Mr. Scott. But I assure you," she jumped and landed on her feet. "I'm okay with heights." Scotty stared at her like she was an alien from a different planet, which she was.

"Aye lassie," he said, a broad grin breaking out over his Scottish complexion. "Aye that ye are." She smiled again and Scotty frowned, puzzled.

"What is it Mr. Scott?" she asked, looking over her shoulder: nothing. "Is it me?" she continued, eyes widening with fear.

"In a way, lass," Sileia clenched her jaw nervously. "I've ne'er seen a Vulcan smile so much." She grinned again and walked over to the engineer. She hooked her arm in his and began walking.

"That's cause I'm not a Vulcan," she said. "Now, explain this whole place to me Mr. Scott," she pleaded gesturing to the room around them.

"Now lass, first thing's first: call me Scotty. Now, this un here, she's a right nasty piece of equipment to repair. But," he shook his finger at her, "without it, we're sittin' in space twiddlin' our thumbs till someone stops by. She's called –"

Oh yes. A day in engineering with a Scottish engineer telling you everything with his scottish phrases and idioms was going to be highly entertaining.

Next stop was Uhura at the communications console. They conversed in Vulcan and talked some more about other languages. She liked Nyota. She was kind and a musician.

Next: sickbay. This was going to be interesting and Sileia looked forward to how it was going to turn out.

"Good day, Dr. McCoy," she said, stopping right behind him. The doctor gave a shout and spun around, knocking over the test tubes he had been working on. His face turned red in anger and frustration as he began to yell.

"Don't sneak up on me! Look what you made me do you –" Sileia turned tail and scampered out the door. Today was not the day to be in the good doctor's presence. So, Sileia wandered the halls until she found she was on the observation deck. And she wasn't alone.

"Yes, Lord. I understand," came a voice and Sileia flattened herself against the wall, disappearing in the shadows. She looked at the ceiling and saw a rather inviting ledge. With a leap far above her normal abilities, she pulled herself up and perched there, completely hidden from view.

"_She mustn't get away this time, Mohinder. If she does, the consequences will be severe. Reputation is talk. Just gossip. You have seen my reputation in person. Now, it is not so unreal. You have a reputation too. No matter what the job, you get it done. Is that just talk? Just gossip?"_

"I shall prove to you Lord that I have a valid reputation as well. I know her weakness. I'll return her to you, have no fear."

_"__I have no fears Agent Mohinder. I simply have grievous doubts. Remember, she is not to be underestimated. She has abilities far above you and there is no way you can defeat her physically."_

"I understand. She will not return to Sileia or her Terran name Aislinn. She will remain your Chotwl'. She has heard the Creed. There is no undoing it."

"_Be sure in that assumption before you make it, Mohinder,_" hissed the second voice. Sileia edged forward and placed her hand along the wall. She closed her eyes and sent her consciousness into the metal.

_A tall Indian man in a uniform stood in a far corner in the opposite side of the room, conversing with what appeared to be a shadow. But it turned out to be his own shadow and he was talking into a communicator. He radiated fear and death and other unpleasant emotions. Then, his head turned towards her and a loud hissing seemed to fill the room. It seemed to zoom in on her and freeze her in sheer terror. Her mouth opened in an endless and silent scream of terror and pain._

_"_I haven't seen her anywhere, Mr. Spock. Do you wish for assistance?" said Yeoman Tamura in her adorable Chinese accent. They stood outside the Rec Room.

"No, Yeoman. Thank you for your offer, though." He continued on down the hall, nearly crashing into Scotty as the Scotsman left Engineering.

"Sorry, Mistar Spock. I didn't see ye there," he apologized walking down the hall.

"Mr. Scott!" called Spock, turning to the engineer. "You haven't by any chance seen Sileia today have you?"

"In fact Mistar Spock, I did! She's a bright one that lass. Came in this mornin' to learn about all me grand ol' lady's engineerin'!" Spock nodded. It was a head way.

"Where did she go afterwards?" he asked.

"I think she stopped by Doctor McCoy's sickbay. She was makin' her way down there. I think it was her goal to learn everythin' she could today by visitin' the department heads." He shrugged. "She ain't in trouble is she?"

"I don't know. I can't find her anywhere." Scotty nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, best of luck findin' her, Mistar Spock. She's a fine young lady. Shame if anythin' were to happen to her." He walked off down the hall, and Spock made his way to Sickbay.

**"****WHY YOU DAMNED HOBGOBLIN!"**

Maybe he should have left sickbay and Doctor McCoy for last.

Spock turned around and made a beeline for the door, only to have McCoy grab his arm and pull him back into the room.

"Where do you think you're going?" he snapped. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?! Walking out of sickbay like that in the middle of the night?! In your condition?!"

"I understand how upset you are about my actions, but I assure you it was necessary and had the desired results: Aislinn remembered who and what she was. Sileia the Vulcan."

"I don't care! Do you realize I had to write up Christine for medical violation and incapability?" Immediately, Spock felt a small knife of shame and guilt stab him in the side.

"It wasn't her fault, Doctor," protested Spock. "I needed to talk to Sileia and I have been able to determine what we are up against. If anything, Nurse Chapel and yourself should be filing that report on me." McCoy looked at the Vulcan out of the corner of his eye as he busied himself with some beakers and other medical equipment.

"Well, well, well. The stone hearted Vulcan has some feelings after all," he smirked and turned to face Spock. Spock rocked back slightly and raised his eyebrow.

"Obviously, doctor since I am, as you enjoy to point out, half human. But that was not a display of emotion on the behalf of Nurse Chapel. It was simply an objection to the paying of another for my decisions."

"Sure," drawled the doctor, turning back to his equipment, straightening it before turning back to the Vulcan.

"You don't come down here on your own free will, Spock, so what is it?"

"It's Sileia. It seems as though no one on board has seen her since she left Engineering at 0800 hours today. I was wondering if you have seen her."

"No, Spock, I haven't. She did walk in here at 0800 hours, but I'm afraid that visit was short." Spock raised an unamused eyebrow at him.

"Which direction did she run?" McCoy looked affronted.

"I never said anything about running away!"

"Doctor, your defensiveness is pointless. I know you lost your temper at her, all I need to know is which direction she ran in." McCoy sighed and pointed out the door she ran out and too the left.

"I don't know where she went after that and I don't see how that helps you. She could have doubled back or something. Why don't you use the inter-com to call her to the Rec Room or something?" Spock looked at him, doubtfully.

"Doctor, I would rather meet her face to face and ask her if anything is wrong. It is unnatural for her to be hiding for this long with no one seeing her." McCoy nodded.

"Hey, I'll go check the observation deck and get back to you okay?" Spock nodded and thanked him for his assistance. But he was disappointed when McCoy returned empty handed.

_"__Sickbay to Bridge,"_ came a voice on the intercom.

"McCoy here," said McCoy, pressing the white button.

"Giotto here, Doctor. Is Mr. Spock with you?" McCoy looked at the Vulcan.

"Yes, he is. What is it?"

"Tell him that you two have been ordered to report to Briefing Room 6 prepared to beam down to the planet surface."

"All right Giotto. McCoy out." He looked at Spock. "Ready to go?" Spock glanced once more around sickbay before walking out the door to the debriefing room.

"Our goal is to find and rescue the twenty people who are down on that planet," said Kirk as Spock sat down. "If you see anyone, stun. We can't take any chances."

"Understood, Jim," said McCoy. Uhura, Spock and Chekov nodded in understanding.

"Let's go." They walked down the hallway and Uhura noticed that Spock was staring at the ceiling and every single nook and cranny that they passed. His behavior continued until they were in the transporter room.

"Energize." Spock watched in foreboding as the world faded into black and then showed a completely changed sand landscape.

"Scan the area. I want to know if there are any people on this God forsaken place." The air was soon filled with the whirring of tricorders.

"There are, Jim. Alive, and human," said McCoy, looking up. "About twenty yards that way." They began walking through the sand and a couple times, Chekov stumbled.

"I'm waiting for 'the sand was invented in Russia,' Chekov," said McCoy gruffly as the navigator fell over.

"No it vas not!" he cried indignantly. "Mother Russia vould never create somezing as annoying as zis!"

"On the contrary, Chekov, sand is not annoying. In fact, a majority of my home planet was desert. And deserts have sand." The rest of the landing party looked at Spock in annoyance as the Vulcan walked easily over the difficult terrain. He met their gazes, raised an eyebrow and looked ahead of himself. They arrived to a staggering stop for some before a large deposit of sandstone.

"Where are the people, Bones?" asked Kirk, looking around, confused. The readings came from the stone, yet there was no one near where they were.

"Sir," said Chekov. "Zis rock isn't right!"

"This rock isn't right, Mr. Chekov?" asked Kirk, looking at the confused Russian worried that the heat had gotten to the young man.

"No sir! Zhe rock's mass proportions are all off! Much lower than zhey should be." Spock reached over and placed his hand flat on the coarse sand stone and his eyes drifted shut. Then, they snapped back open.

"They are in here captain. There is a catch under the sand."

"What are you suddenly a mind reader now, Spock?" asked McCoy, rolling his eyes. "You can tell all that from one touch with a rock?"

"It seems as though Sileia has heightened my perceptive abilities until my psi points are back to their natural state," he replied smoothly, brushing away the sand where he had gotten an indication of where the catch was. Uhura screamed and Spock nearly did too as he brushed the sand aside to reveal a face, mutilated and bloodied in the ground.

"Oh, my God..." breathed Uhura, clinging to Chekov.

"Vhy vould zhey leave him zhere Captain?"

"It isn't a he, Chekov," said Kirk softly. As Spock brushed more of the sand away, they found that the poor soul was a woman, one who would have been very beautiful, at least from the base of the neck up. Spock pulled the body from the ground and had to turn away, nearly vomiting into the sand. Her rib cage had been ripped open, skin torn off, and body nearly ripped in half. Spock stumbled back and McCoy ran over to him.

"Easy, Spock. Considering your condition, I'm surprised you managed to keep your stomach in control." Spock looked at him and said hoarsely,

"I almost didn't." He looked back at the body and returned to his digging, purposefully avoiding the dreadful carnage beside him.

"They left her here as a warning. I'm guessing this is one of their last sanctuaries and they left her here to deter people, make them think that the humanoid objects they were detecting were simply corpses left from the carnage. That means," his hand hit a metal handle, "this is the entrance." The side of the rock cracked open and the people who were crammed inside whimpered and cringed as the light hit their faces.

Twenty people, a majority adults and teenagers, huddled in the shadows, clutching makeshift weapons furtively as if they knew that they wouldn't be enough to hold out against the terror that attacked them.

"We are here to help you. I am Captain Kirk of the USS _Enterprise_. Me and my crew are here to transport you up to our ship. You'll be safe there." One by one, the oldest adults stepped forward and held their weapons out before them.

"How do we know you're really here?" asked the woman in the lead. She looked like she was ready to pass out but seemed willing to put up a fight before she did. "How do we know you weren't a mirage like that damned Vulcan that arrived. Took my daughter he did!" Her voice was cracking and strained, "Twisted her little neck...my May! My sweet, sweet May!" she sobbed. Spock tried to turn around before the woman caught sight of him but was too late.

"Y-you!" she whispered, pointing a shaky finger at Spock. "You did this to us! You killed everyone! You took my May from me!" She and the other adults ran forward as one, shoving by Kirk and the Doctor. Spock braced himself as the angered family members drew closer, weapons raised. He couldn't blame them for the illusion the Talosians had placed in their heads. He couldn't blame them for the anger they now bore against him.

"A'nirih!" Spock barely had time to brace himself before Sileia bowled into him, knocking him clean over so that they rolled several feet away from where knifes and swords plunged into the sand. Giotto ran over from where he had beamed down with Aislinn, pulling out his phaser to keep the traumatized people at bay.

"Aislinn?!" came a few voices from the rock cave. She looked at them and stood up. "But you said that you stayed behind, that you wouldn't make it!" She smiled.

"Yes, I did say that. But my distress call was picked up. They really are here, the crew of the _Enterprise_. And they are here to help us. Spock didn't kill those people in the facility. That was an illusion produced by the Talosians. Please, believe me. Spock and the others have been nothing but kind to me." The adults looked at her and slowly lowered their weapons, dropping them with soft thuds into the sand.

"Now that I see him, just sitting there in the sand," began the woman who had started all this. "he could never have done what he did to poor Avalon there." She jerked her head at the corpse lying in the sand. Sileia followed her head jerk and screamed. Her hands went to the sides of her head and she began backing up, falling down and panicking. Spock scrambled to his feet and gently, slowly, crept towards her, hand slowly let him come closer but shied away as he tried to touch her.

"Shh..." One by one the survivors came out and looked at the crew of the starship like they were angels from heaven. The nightmare was over. They couldn't be harmed ay more. Kirk smiled and said comfortingly,

"That's it. You're safe now. No one can harm you ever again." He pulled out his communicator.

"Scotty?"

"_Aye Captain?_" The people gathered smiled as they heard the tell-tale Scottish accent. Then their small grins turned to broad smiles as Kirk said the words.

"Beam up the survivors. Maximum number at a time and have a medical crew standing by."

"_Aye Captain_." As the landing party watched, five of the people vanished in the beam of a transporter. Then, group by group, there were none left.

Sileia was still clinging to Spock by the time everyone had left. He looked at Giotto, Kirk, Bones, and Uhura before asking the question he desperately wanted an answer to.

"Where was she?"

"Perched on a ledge in the observation deck. She just fell off the ledge and landed on her back, staring straight up at the ceiling," Giotto answered. "She sort of startled Ensign Tamura and Ensign Riley." He smirked slightly.

"What happened?_" _whispered Spock, running his hand down the back of her head. She looked up at him and murmured,

"They found me...they're coming for me." She looked at Captain Kirk. "You must get rid of the crew member Mohinder." A confused look came over Kirk's face.

"I don't think we have a crew member named Mohinder, Sileia," he said slowly. Giotto nodded in confirmation of Kirk's statement.

"But you do! I saw him talking to some one...actually into a communicator. I saw him A'nirih! I swear I did!" She grabbed Spock's hand and closed her eyes.

_A tall Indian man in a uniform stood in a far corner in the opposite side of the room, conversing with what appeared to be a shadow, no wait, he was holding a communicator. He turned towards her and a loud hissing seemed to fill the room. It seemed to zoom in on her and freeze her in sheer terror. Her mouth opened in an endless and silent scream of terror and _pain. Spock looked at Kirk.

"It's true. We have someone onboard hunting Sileia." He stood up and held Sileia's hand gently in his own. "An Indian man, tall, slightly bearded, named Mohinder."

"Ok, we'll look into it as soon as we beam up." He pulled out his communicator and was about to give the order when McCoy interrupted him.

"Captain, I wish to remain here with Sileia for a moment. There is something that we must attend to." Kirk nodded.

"Notify us when you want a beam up," he said. "Scotty, energize, but leave McCoy and Sileia here until further notice." The landing party disappeared. But not before McCoy caught the warning glance Spock shot him.

"Where are we going Doctor?" she asked as he began leading her to the facility.

"There is someone we need to attend to," he said softly, and walked to the main door. Sileia stopped and began whimpering.

"No, no I don't want to go back, I don't want to go back!"

"Shh, Sileia. You're not going anywhere, I promise. Not while I am with you. We're going in to take care of someone. Then, we'll call the ship for a beam up, okay?" Reluctantly, Sileia nodded and walked in after McCoy. It was dark and cold, and the slightest smell of decay was prevalent throughout the premises. Sileia gagged and pulled back against the firm grip of the Doctor, trying to flee.

"Now, Aislinn," said McCoy, his voice changing and gaining an accent, "You are going home." The doctor morphed into a tall Indian man and before Sileia could do anything, he had swung his fist into the side of her head and she fell to the ground. But soon, she was back on her feet running away as fast as she could from Mohinder.


	7. Chapter 7

**"****It's been too long," said Kirk, pacing. "Bones should have made contact by now." Spock looked as worried as the Captain and so did everyone else in the briefing room. "I'm going down there."**

"Jim, maybe you should wait a little longer –"

"Spock, it has been an hour!" He stalked toward the door, only to get bowled over by a frantic Nurse Chapel and Giotto. The two of them began talking at once.

"Captain, we have a severe medical situation –"

"– Rigged the scanner to –" Their voices combined and Kirk managed to get one word: McCoy.

"Okay SHUT UP!" he yelled and the two officers fell silent. "One at a time. Giotto, what is it?"

"We rigged the scanner to look for McCoy's life readings only and there is no McCoy, dead or otherwise, on the planet. We then thought that he had beamed back on board without notifying you, so we turned the scanner on for the interior of the ship. What we found – "

"McCoy never left the ship, Captain," interrupted Christine. "We found him with a broken leg and unconscious in one of unused, abandoned Jefferies Tubes. Whoever was down there with you, wasn't McCoy." Kirk rubbed his head with both hands: he was getting a migraine.

"How long was that not real Bones Bones?" asked Kirk, his mid reeling with a million questions.

"Not long. Only after he left the sickbay to look for Sileia after he scared her."

_Sileia. Communicator. Mohinder. Imposter. Recapture. Enemy ship. Sileia gone. Talosians. _Everything fell into place in Kirk's mind.

"I've got to get to the bridge!" he yelled and ran out of the room. Everyone looked at each other and then at Spock.

"I believe the captain just had one of his epiphany moments in his head and failed to notify the rest of us about it."

When McCoy had woken to gentle hands pulling him up out of a small, cramped space, he had been aware of nothing. Then, everything had fallen into place quickly. A tall Indian man talking into a communicator. He had approached and before he knew it, there had been a loud crack and his leg had crumpled under him. He had instinctively doubled over his leg to protect it from further injury, but that had been a mistake. The man had brought his hand crashing down on the back of his neck and he felt nothing except a throbbing pain in his thigh and that too eventually faded.

Now, Christine Chapel was pulling him out of the Jefferies tube he had been deposited in. Vaguely, he could identify Giotto's voice calling for a medical bed. That was when his leg erupted in pain and he cried out. Christine had gasped as he grabbed his leg, which he could feel was terribly bent out of shape. Whoever had attacked him had known exactly where to hit to make the most painful wound and create the longest recovery period. He needed to find Sileia, or Spock at least. As he was wheeled down the halls with medics on either side, pressing hypos into him, he became aware of the shift bell going off. Two hours later?! He tried to sit up, but a new person was pressing him down. He looked up blearily and saw Spock.

"Spock?" he whispered.

"Don't talk Doctor," was his only response. His face was strained with worry and that was when McCoy knew it was bad.

"How bad is it, Spock?" he whispered. Spock looked down at him and back at the hall ahead of them. A hypo was pressed into his arm and he remembered no more.

When McCoy woke for the second time, he had a sense of admiration for his medical crew. The loss of a CMO was difficult and he knew he was one of the worst patients onboard. But here he was, still in one piece, relatively, and still kicking, metaphorically.

"How are you, doctor?" asked a deep toned voice that McCoy knew well. Spock was standing beside him and looking down at him in concern.

"Let's leave it at I've had better days, Spock. Since when did you care?" he mumbled, closing his eyes. Spock seemed to be weighing his answer carefully.

"I do not expect you to be surprised when I say that I consider you a friend. Therefore, by the same token, I don't expect you to be surprised when I say that I am considerably worried about that friend when his femur is protruding from his –"

"WHAT?!" yelled McCoy, trying to sit up. The Vulcan's response was swift and merciless. A pinch to the side of the neck and he was out cold.

"You don't go telling a patient that his thigh bone broke so badly it stuck out of his leg, Spock," said Christine as she walked into the room to tend to McCoy's wound.

"Vulcans aren't this unpredictable, Nurse, and a Vulcan would have wanted to know what happened. In fact, I was simply answering a question he previously asked me." Christine sighed as she took into note the bandaged and ravaged leg. They had had to cut into him to partially reset it and the pain had been so great that they had had to keep Spock there to hold him down and keep him under control. It would be a long recovery for the doctor, and she wasn't looking forward to dealing with it. In fact, another surgery might be needed.

"You are worried, Nurse." It was a statement, not a question. "May I ask why?"

"Because Leonard's god damn femur was snapped nearly clean in half and ripped through his skin, that's why!" she shouted, turning on the Vulcan. "I don't know how long it will take for him to recover or if he even will! Amputation isn't out of the question yet!" She jabbed another hypo into the doctor's arm before speed walking into her office. The door hissed shut and Spock was left looking down into the face of his injured friend wondering why humans were so emotionally complicated.

"Thank you so much for taking us in, Captain Kirk," said one of the men. He had a nasty wound to his leg that was all bandaged and his arm was in a sling. The other survivors weren't much better, but they were alive and that was all that mattered.

"It was our duty," Kirk responded as he looked around the table at them. "We came to do our routine monthly check-up and...well, let's just say we were unpleasantly surprised." There was a sorrowful silence around the table. One of the youngest boys reached over and tapped his mother's arm. Through a series of hand motions and exasperated whispers from his mother for him to speak, it was determined that the little boy wanted to go to sleep.

"I'm sorry, captain. Eric seems to have a need to go to bed now," she said apologetically, rising with the child on her hip. "Once he has fallen asleep, I will see if he will allow me to return." Kirk nodded and gave a salute to the little boy.

"Good night, Eric." The little boy gave a fleeting smile before he clung to his mother like a barnacle again. After the door closed after them, Kirk looked at the older man who was all beat up and had spoken in the first place.

"What happened to him? Why doesn't he speak?" The man shook his head sadly.

"We're not sure. He was one of the last to leave the building...Nara was sure she had lost her little boys. They were twins you know? Eric had a twin brother, Chris. He was slaughtered in the first wave and...well, let's just say Eric didn't get out fast enough. He watched him get killed and he ran further into the facilities. We couldn't go after him, so we simply ran. Nara was screaming for him, but he didn't turn back. "We hid in the rock and were just about to close the door when he came running out over the sand. He was frantic and scared, but there was a light of awe in his eyes. We don't know what he saw, but his last words were 'She avenged Chris.' We don't know what that meant, but he got out of there without a scratch. My only guess is that one of the adults got between him and those monsters and killed a lot of them." He shrugged. "All we know is that since Chris's death, he hasn't spoken. They had a sort of telepathic connection those two." Kirk nodded thoughtfully. He had a good idea about who avenged Chris but he didn't say anything.

Sileia crouched, panting behind one of the broad pillars in the main rec room. Her heart hammered like a drum in her chest and her mouth was dry and cottony.

"You can't run forever, Chotwl'," came Mohinder's voice. "You''ll have to come out eventually, whether by your own choice, or through force." She looked around for something, anything that could help her against the agent. She looked in the shining metal panel across the narrow room and saw her reflection. Her heart stopped, blood drained from her face, and she went completely tense.

Tirang was sitting next to her a single finger pressed against his lips. She glanced to the side and saw that there was no one there beside her. She looked back at the reflection. Tirang pulled an axe out of his back where the illusion Spock had hit him and placed it on the ground between them. He reached over and held her hand and she swore she could feel a cold presence over hers. But no one was there. She looked at him and saw him as he had been, his black eyebrows tilted up and his blood green. His eyes were the dark, deep orbs that they had once been and he was a battered Vulcan again. He nodded at her once and a thought flitted through her head, as light and soft as a breath of wind. His touch, a touch she had known from the age of seven.

_They never changed you. You are a Vulcan. Sileia, daughter of Saavik. You can do this._

Sileia took a deep breath as the message repeated over and over in her head. Her hand travelled down to her side and wrapped around the crusted leather handle. She lifted the axe and the familiar weight settled in.

She opened her eyes and found she was sitting alone. The implement that killed Tirang, her bond-mate, clenched in her hand. Her blood started running again and she blinked slowly. As her eyes opened, everything came in sharper, clearer. Her ears picked up the slightest sound. Her blood ran with a fire she couldn't control. Her grip tightened on the axe and she felt something in her coming out, a beast kept at bay by a life time of Vulcan discipline.

Child of Romulus. Child of Earth. Child of Vulcan. That was who she was. Saavikam was her mother, and that was just the half of it. Everything fell into place. Stabbing Spock, why deep down, it felt completely wrong. He was one of her people. A misunderstood, hated half-breed. Why she was torn and confused. Why her mind had shut down her memory about her attacks. She felt anger bubbling up inside of her and she knew that the people who were responsible for her capture, this slaughter, and for all the damage she had done were going to experience their experiment first hand.

Someone was coming down the hall, closer to her. Growing closer, closer...

"Whe –" shouted a voice and Sileia jumped up, swinging the axe in a swift round about swing to the figure's chest. It hit without meeting any resistance and she looked at Mohinder in triumph. She screamed and let go of the axe handle. It remained in the victim's chest, she had swung so hard.

Spock looked at her in shock and opened his mouth to say something. All that came out was a wave of green and he crumpled to the ground, laying there, bleeding out onto the floor.

"Now, you've done it Sileia," whispered Mohinder, gently putting an arm around her shoulders. "You've gone and killed your protector. What will your mother say about this?" She looked at the dead Vulcan on the ground and felt frozen to the spot. She had killed the last person in the world who she could count on. She began sobbing and the tears came unbidden and unending. She fell to her knees before Spock and screamed in anger at herself.

"Idiot. Murderer. Assassin. Killer. Mercenary. That's all you are when you're unfinished. We can fix you, take you back where you can be fixed, completed, Chotwl'. We can help you control it, the need to murder. All you need to do...is take my hand." Sileia looked at the empty vacant eyes of Spock and thought of her mother, grandfather, grandmother, and Tirang. She knew then what she was. She looked at the metal panel and her brow furrowed in barely suppressed anger.

Tirang was crouched before her in the reflection and he gave her a look, shifted his eyes to Spock then to Mohinder before vanishing again. She saw herself and knew then what was going on. Why her emotions were raging and why her senses were returning. She looked up at the agent through tear and anger blurred eyes, her long hair swept away from her face and pulled over a shoulder.

"No...impossible..." he began backing away as she rose to her feet, anger making her glow. Her hand dropped down and she pulled the axe from the illusion she had killed.

"You made me human. Irrational, illogical. You killed my bond-mate Tirang. You forced the Talosians to work for you, to do your dirty work. That man on the floor? He isn't Spock. He isn't a Vulcan. That is another one of your illusions. You take my fears and turn them into something that you can use." She continued to stalk forward, gesticulating with the axe in her hands, as he continued to flee backwards.

"But I tell you now, you have sorely underestimated me. Your Chotwl' isn't going to be your murderer again. Never. Because humans are manipulable. Vulcans and Romulans aren't. You thought you had conquered me, but you were nowhere close. You brought out my human quarter. But the Vulcan half can't be controlled. And the Romulan quarter...you might as well be pouring a teaspoon of water on a bonfire." Her deep, dark eyes glowed with anger. Her pointed ears strained to pick up every sound of his terror. Her pointed eyebrow rose fractionally as she stopped, axe pressed against his throat.

"I will never kill again. Not after this." The axe came back and forward. Soon, Sileia was standing there, axe pressed against the mirror while blood pooled around her feet. She had won. She was free.

"Impressive. You managed to regain your original form." Sileia spun around and felt the beast like, savage hands grabbing her. The howls of animal hunger rang throughout the building and Sileia screamed swinging the axe and knocking several to the floor. But they were too many and soon she was held tightly. One hand smashed her axe from her hand.

Mohinder walked forward and placed a hand on her brow.

"Aren't you feeling a bit fevered, Chotwl'?" he asked innocently. "After all, my friend, you've just been talking to a mirror. Nothing there. See?" he turned her head to look at the place where she had killed "Mohinder" the illusion. As she had expected, there was nothing there. The same thing with where Spock's body had been. "You are crazy, Chotwl'. You haven't paid mind to the Creed. Naughty, naughty, naughty." He pulled away and Sileia snapped at his hand, crying out as several hands jerked her head back via her hair.

"You're going home, little girl. You're going to hell." Her eyes took on fear and she thrashed against the swarm of savage t_hings_ around her.

"No!" She shrieked, twisting and turning. "Tirang! No, get OFF! Let GO! Tirang!" She gasped in fear as the world faded with the hum of a transporter beam.

Spock was sitting in his quarters, staring at the computer in his room. He was shocked to say the least. He hadn't heard from the half-Romulan half-Vulcan woman since he had visited her on Vulcan the last time he had taken shore leave. Now, out of the blue, he got a message from her. He wearily pressed the replay button.

"_Spock, it has been a long time since we have last spoken, face to face or otherwise. I hope this message reaches you in good health and am calling upon you to do something for me. There is a whole back story that goes with this message and I will tell that story now. When we first met, I tried to kill you. You took me in and raised me to be a good person, a good Vulcan. I was brought into your family and then, I found out about T'Pring. I met her and I got the same implication that your mother had. I hated her. Not only did she have the worst personality for your wife, I knew she was disloyal. And there was something else. I had feelings for you Spock, feelings that couldn't advance while she was around. Then, she was no longer your bond-mate and I felt joy again. I had missed you and wanted to catch up with you. Now, when you last visited, you know we spent the night together. It has been eleven point four five seven years since we last saw each other and there has been an occurrence. You are a father Spock, a father to a wonderful young Vulcan girl. She looks like neither of us dominantly, but a mix of both our traits. She has your eyes though. Your eyes and your sense of humor. _Here, Saavik smiled and looked down. _She has made me laugh and cry at the same time, she is so like you. I sent her to intercept you at a Star Base several weeks ago. It was StarBase 6 opposite the planet Vulcan, the one you'll stop at once you are done with your mission. She is missing. No one knows what happened to the Base, but it was raided by a strange ship. One that looked like this. _Saavik held up a picture and Spock again felt an involuntary shiver run down his back.

The ship was a nightmare and he had no idea who it belonged to. He listened again to Saavik's message about who's it was.

_Specialists say it belongs to a savage tribe in the outskirts of our galaxy. One that shouldn't have had access to starships, but apparently does. Reavers. They attack the people, torturing, slaughtering, raping, and otherwise massacring everyone and everything they come against. They took all of the Vulcan children on that StarBase. Seven children, Spock. Our daughter was one of need to go after her. She needs you Spock, and I can't go after her. I'm on the other side of the galaxy currently and I don't have a ship. You need to stop them and get our daughter back. Imagine, a world like ours being raided by Reavers, taking and killing every person that they come to. Please, Spock. I need you to find her. I need you to find our daughter. _Oh lord, no, thought Spock again as Saavik said the next part of her message._She looks like this. _And she held up the dreaded picture. Spock remembered the first time that he had heard this message. He had nearly stopped breathing. The girl in the photo, smiling and laughing, with a happy face, eyes like his, but with a mischievous glint like her mother, was...her. _Please find her, Spock. She needs to be found before they kill her. Her bond-mate was also with her, Spock. A boy her age by the name of Tirang. Please bring them home safely. I can't think of our baby girl in the hands of those torturers and murderers. Please find her. Her name is Sileia. I love you Spock and come home. Come home with your daughter and son-in-law. Please. Contact me as soon as you have them. Saavik out._

Spock looked ahead in shock still. Sileia, the girl he had taken an immediate bonding to was his daughter. His daughter had been the one who had her mind ripped through. His daughter was the one who was attacked and changed into a human, had her arm branded with that infernal Reaver sign. His daughter had been the one who stabbed him. He raised an eyebrow at that. He looked up as the door buzzed. He really didn't feel like seeing any one right now...

"Damn it, Spock!" said an annoyed Georgian voice. "Open the damn door!" Surprised, Spock rose and walked over to the door, unlocking it and saw McCoy there in a wheel chair, looking up at him. He noticed the stiff demeanor of the Vulcan.

"Is something wrong?" Spock hesitated and made an understatement.

"No. Nothing is wrong," he answered. Everything was wrong. He hadn't lied, he just hadn't told the whole truth. "What brought you here?" McCoy wheeled himself into the room and the door slid shut behind him.

"It's about my leg. They're going to do a surgery to put it back in place and to help heal my wound. So, I was wondering if you could put me out of it. Like really out of it?" McCoy looked at his friend a pleading look in his eyes. "Please, Spock."

"Of course, doctor." Spock out down the PADD he was carrying and hesitated. "Doctor..." he began and McCoy knew that the Vulcan had a personal question to ask him.

"What is it, Spock?" Spock straightened and asked him the question without looking over at him.

"If Joanna was in serious danger, or in the hands of savages, what would you do to get her back? What if it meant going against Starfleet, going against everything you ever stood for?" McCoy wheeled over to face the Vulcan.

"I would do whatever was necessary. Why do you ask?" Spock hesitated even more.

"Do you remember the Tholians?"

"Yeah, of course I do. Jim nearly died, Spock!" said McCoy, worried that the Vulcan had lost his memory.

"Do you remember what the Captain's last orders were to us?" McCoy looked at him concerned.

"How we should take each others advice?" prompted Spock. McCoy nodded slowly.

"Well, that's what I'm doing." McCoy looked at him confused and was about to ask why he was asking him about kids but Spock took him and wheeled him out of his quarters back to sick bay for the operation. The nurses laid him on the bed and Spock initiated the mind meld in which he put McCoy in an extremely deep sleep. He left the room, hand fiddling with the square memory chips in his hand. He stopped by McCoy's quarters and dropped it on the table. Then, he made his way to the captain's quarters and did the same thing. Then, he made his way up to the bridge.

Spock had McCoy's opinion. Now, it was time to go through with it.

"Sir, there's another ship leaving orbit!" That was the first thing that Spock heard as he entered the bridge.

"What type?" asked Kirk, sitting forward in his chair. Silence. "What type Sulu?"

"I don't know sir. I've never seen anything like it before." He turned to look at Kirk and the captain gave the next order that was seconds away from being spoken from Spock.

"Put it on the viewing screen." The ship that Spock dreaded yet yearned to see appeared on the screen before him and he said the name, lacing it with bitterness.

"Reavers. Captain, go to full red alert. These people are dangerous," said Spock, hurrying to his station.

"You heard Mr. Spock, Uhura. Full red alert, battle stations."

"Aye sir," she said and soon the red alert klaxon was wailing and people were rushing to general quarters. Then, Uhura's voice cut through the tension in the room. "Sir, the ship is hailing us."

"Put them on viewing screen, Uhura," said Jim, anxious to see who these Reavers were.

"I can't sir," she protested. "They don't seem to be that far advanced. I can put it on audio."

"This is James T. Kirk of the USS _Enterprise_."

"Hello James, my name is Mohinder." Kirk tensed and looked at Spock. He had known the Vulcan long enough to see the barely restrained emotion in his alien friend. "I am under the impression that you have lied to Starfleet. I am sure they appreciate that. Telling them that Chotwl' hasn't said anything? Well, she's perfectly talkative, we know that. Especially with her swearing." He hesitated and there was a loud thud. Muffled voices ensued and then his voice came back.

"She also seems to have a fighting complex. Must have gotten that from her mother, eh Spock?" he said. The whole crew looked at Spock and the Vulcan clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. "Saa-" Spock cut him off.

"Mohinder, I'd strongly advise that you get on with what you were trying to say." Mohinder cleared his throat.

"I have before me a recording of Admiral Cartwright's order 66. I shall play it for you."

"_This girl is the main ingredient for our plan. She has the most diverse background, and her traits and genes have come together in the best combination possible. If you ever should lose her, or she turns against you, execute this order: Order 66. Go to any extent to recapture her. Use her family as leverage if you must. Kill all who have spoken to her or she has spoken to. Ruthlessness. That is why you have been paired with the Reavers."_

"As you see, Captain Kirk," he said with a disgusting glee in his voice. "My co-workers get to destroy your whole crew and take your ship. Just like Sinclair 12. Prepare to be boarded."

"Mohinder!" interrupted Spock before the connection was broken. "You won't get away. You can't control Sileia. You can't control the Talosians. You can't control the Reavers. Your plan will crumble. It's crumbling already." Spock took a deep breath. "And I will bring you down." He cut the transmission and Kirk looked at him.

"Spock, are you okay?" He placed a hand on the Vulcan's shoulder.

"Starfleet is in on this, too. She's a government experiment, that's what she is." Spock shook his head. "And to think I dedicated my whole life to them. Permission to open a channel to Starfleet, captain?"

"Uhura, let him sit down," said Kirk.

"Yes Captain." As Spock sat down, Uhura placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Starfleet, this is the USS _Enterprise_. Get me a channel to Admiral Cartwright."

"Channel open and ready _Enterprise._"

"_Yes Enterprise, what is it?"_

"Bath'paik vu sa-fu t'ron-tu," he said darkly. Uhura gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth, suppressing noises of laughter and horror. "You took her to be destroyed. There is no word in any language for the sick mind you have."

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Spock, but that was rather offensive what you just said to me in Vulcan. I was under the impression that Vulcans never talked to their superiors like that."

"I too was under the impression that Starfleet admirals spend their time doing other things than kidnapping Vulcan hybrids from Starbases and mentally destroying them." There was a startled silence on both ends of the communications line. "Have you ever been on the wrong end of the Stol-kar-fa-lee? Because you are definitely on the wrong end of one now."

"Mr. Spock, what are you talking about?"

"You know very well what I am talking about. I'm talking about that agent Mohinder and Chotwl'. I'm talking about Order 66." There was a strangled croak and the line fell silent. "Admiral?"

"I never knew you swore, T'hyla." Spock nearly face-palmed for the first time in his life and nearly breathed a sigh of relief. "But you do it well. I was having a meeting with him when you called. I understood where you were heading and I took care of him. I'm sorry, my Romulan half took over. Did you..."

"I found her. She's on the Reaver ship you. I won't leave her there in their hands, don't worry."

"Thank you, T'hyla. Where are you? You won't be able to stand against them if they attack." He looked at Kirk and the Captain nodded him on. Vaguely, he caught sight of his reflection in the panel. The Vulcan boy Tirang was standing beside him, shaking his head three times. He pointed at Spock's heart then to the radio transmitter. Spock's face darkened ever so slightly.

"Nice try Cartwright. You just gave me all the proof I needed." He ended the transmission and whispered a thanks to the Talosians for sending the illusion of Tirang. "Permission to go to quarters Captain?" he asked standing up wearily.

"Permission granted, Spock. Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine. A bit overwhelmed but otherwise fine." He started to leave the bridge but Uhura called after him. He winced. Why did she have to translate everything that he said?

"Damn you you son of a bitch...and I quote that...I didn't know you had it in you Spock." The tips of his ears turned green as he left the bridge and a startled crew.

Spock walked into his quarters, locked the door and got to work. He took out the schematics for the Reaver ship and read them over, memorizing them quickly. He then took another recording of his message and labelled it _Saavik. _He looked around and felt a deep sense of sadness in his heart. He felt as though he would never see here again. That he would never see any of his friends again. He shook of the momentary sense of morbidity and told himself to get a grip. He had shown too much emotion for a Vulcan, even a half-Vulcan like him.

He thought briefly of his family, of whether or not his father or mother knew about him, Saavik, and their daughter. His mother probably did, but he wasn't sure about his father. With that thought, he pulled out another two chips and downloaded the same message onto the two of them. One he labelled Amanda Grayson, the other Sarek of Vulcan. Then, he walked out of his quarters and to the transporter room.

"Where do you think you're going Mr. Spock?" asked Kyle. "No one has been authorized to go anywhere." Spock sighed. This man was always getting attacked by anyone and everyone trying to use the transporter without permission. And he himself had attacked him several times.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kyle. Tell Kirk and McCoy, when he wakes up, that I left something for them in their quarters." Kyle looked at him uncomprehending and Spock took his advantage to nerve pinch the poor engineer. He placed in the coordinates and pushed the beaming device up and down. He ran into the transporter beam and soon, he was gone.


	8. Chapter 8

"Sir, Mr. Spock is no where in sight. We've called several times and there has been no response." Uhura looked at Kirk slightly worried. "You don't think the same thing that happened to McCoy happened to him do you?" Kirk shook his head.

"No, I think Spock would be too strong and too agile to have that happen to him." Kirk looked at the viewing screen at the disappearing reaver ship. It had been fifteen minutes since his friend had last checked in from his report to quarters. Where was he?

_"__M'Benga to Captain Kirk_."

"Kirk here."

"Well hi there Jim." Despite the current situation, Kirk smiled.

"Hello, Bones. How are you feeling?"

"Good. I'm back on duty, actually. Sitting in my office, filling out these damned reports. I'm feeling a lot better than I would have if Spock hadn't put me in that sleep." McCoy waited. "Well, that's the first time I have paid that hobgoblin a compliment and he hasn't commented." Everyone winced.

"Bones...uh we don't know where Spock is." There was a surprised silence at the other end of the line.

"You can't _find_ him?" he asked surprised.

"We don't think he's onboard any –" Kyle walked in, rubbing the tell-tale spot on his neck. "Never mind Bones. He's definitely not onboard anymore."

"THAT STUPID –" Kirk turned off the connection.

"Yes, Kyle?" asked Jim, looking at the engineer.

"He's gone. Used the transporter...said for me to tell you and McCoy that there are two recorded messages for you two in your quarters." Kyle sighed in mild pain and rubbed his neck. "I just wish that he wouldn't pinch me so hard."

"Where is he?" asked Uhura, stepping forward. Kyle looked at her.

"Where do you think? He can't just beam into space can he?" Everyone fell silent and looked at the vanishing Reaver ship. "And I always thought he was the rational, non suicidal type..."

"He's onboard that?!" was Kirk's angry response. The turbolift door slid open and McCoy walked in. He looked shaken and white. He held up a shaking hand and in it was a tape labelled _Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy_.

"Jim," he said weakly. "You may want to see this...I assume you have one, too."

_Jim, I know this may be hard for you to accept, but I am turing my back on everything that I once knew and followed. My wife and bond-mate, Saavik, has sent me a recording telling me that I have a child. A daughter. I know this may come as a shock, but that child is Sileia. I bonded with her in an instant and vowed to always take care of her. Now that I know who is behind her attacks, and where she is, and that she is in fact my daughter, I cannot let her slip by me now. I'm leaving the ship and beaming aboard the Reaver's ship. I have a feeling that I will not make it. A feeling similar to when I entered the giant organism that resembled an amoeba. I am leaving this to tell you where I am going and that I have always treasured your friendship. I only wish that my Vulcan pride hadn't prevented me from telling you that earlier. Live Long and Prosper, my friend. Lead the _Enterprise_ on through many more missions to come. Don't come back for me. Farewell Jim. _

Kirk stared at the monitor in stunned silence. Spock was a dad? He had left onto that infernal ship? He thought I never knew that he considered me a friend? He looked at Bones and found that the doctor was staring straight ahead in shock from his message.

"May I Bones?" Jim asked lifting the doctor's message.

"Go ahead, Jim..." he said weakly. Kirk plugged the other chip in.

_Doctor. I shall make this as painless for you as possible. I know you were considerably confused when I started asking you about your daughter and what you would do if she was in the hands of savages and rapists. You told me that you would do anything that you needed to do to get her back from them. I took your advice. Sileia is Saavik's and my daughter. I understand now what it means to have a family that you need to take care of. I know that we haven't gotten along very well in the past, but I can tell you now I always valued your advice, even if it didn't come out exactly the way you desired or if it came harshly and in the form of criticism. That advice has been monumental in the determination of my decision. Don't let Jim take this too hard._

_I want to tell you that there are three other tapes in my quarters. They are for my mother, my father, and Saavik, on the event that I do not return. Please deliver them if I fail to return. And I don't believe that I will return form this mission. I will try to get Sileia back to the _Enterprise _through any means that I find. When she returns, take care of her until you can get her to my family on Vulcan. Go back to Starfleet and tell them the truth about Cartwright. I'm trusting you to do this and not Jim because we both know him to get slightly overemotional at times. I am afraid that he will take delivering the message too hard. If you need help with any of these tasks, I trust you to pick Jim or any other crew member to help you. I even trust all of your families. Please take care of her McCoy. And every one else. Do your job as a doctor. Peace and Long Life, Bones. Spock out._

There was an even more stunned silence in the room.

"You knew that Spock considered you a friend, right Bones?" asked Kirk, just to make sure.

"Yes, of course I knew that!" he snapped, still in shock. "But he's trusting me with everything! Why not confide in you?"

"I think Spock had a valid point," said Kirk, smiling wryly. "I'd get too emotional." He sighed and sat down on his bed. "Well, I guess that settles it." McCoy looked at him.

"What do you mean?" Kirk continued in a half – hearted way,

"Well, we need to find the Talosians. Free them from the control of the Reavers and whoever else is in on this. Then, we can recruit their help –"

"Jim are you insane?" hissed McCoy. "Spock is out there on that hell bound ship and we need to get him and Sileia off of it before they get too far away."

Kirk stood up. "I know that's what we have to do, but he told me not to go after him."

"Since when have you listened to that stupid hobgoblin?!" asked McCoy surprised. Kirk nodded in acknowledgement of the statement.

"Good point." He pressed a button on the wall. "Uhura, Scotty, Chekov, and Sulu report to the transporter room. Be prepared for a violent search and rescue operation. Giotto, you have the comm."

When the interior of the Reaver ship came into view, Spock felt that gut feeling of not returning come back. Skeletons were hanging on the walls and they were streaked with a ominous, dried brown substance. The halls were poor quality and seemed to be lined with sharp, rusted shards of metal. There seemed to be water dripping somewhere in the ship because in the silence, he could here the steady, magnified drip and splash. Slowly, Spock edged forward, senses strained to detect the slightest changes in his surroundings. There was no noise and that didn't seem right. Judging from the remains that Reavers left from their attacks, there should be a lot of noise, mostly animalistic.

But there was no noise. Nothing. He continued on through the hallways, hiding in the shadows and edging along slowly.

"YOU!" boomed a loud, snarling voice and Spock spun around. There were four Reavers standing in the entrance to the hall at the other end of the room. Loud roars, snarls, and howls rang throughout the deck and Spock raised his phaser. Two of them fell with brief cries of animal frustration before their life left them.

But they were too many and soon, the other two were upon him, snatching, tearing and cutting. Spock jumped forward and rolled across the floor. He stood back up using his own momentum and picked up two of the crooked, rusted spikes of metal that the Reavers used as weapons, one in each hand. The savages approached more slowly. He wouldn't get away as easily this time.

"_NO!" _screamed Aislinn, twisting and turning as she was pulled down the halls after re-materializing. "Let me GO!" There was the harsh gargled, grating sound that she soon figured out to be Reaver laughter surrounding her. "Tirang!" She looked around wildly, trying to see her bond-mate in the reflections along the walls. He wasn't there.

They shoved her head down and pushed her along the passage. She screamed obscenities at them that would have made even a Klingon wince but all she heard was laughter. One of them kicked the creaking door open and she was dragged through a prison-like corridor. She fell silent as she saw who the inhabitants were. Talosians gazed at her from their gross and primitive cells, the remains of their previous inhabitants hanging from the ceilings. There was one woman in the whole room and she scrambled to the front of her cell, calling out to Sileia.

"Shut up!" barked the Reaver in charge. Their voices were harsh, discordant sounds that barely passed as English. He kicked at her and howled, chasing her back to the others in her cell.

"Are you the one?" called Sileia as she was dragged to a solitary cell. "The visions! Tirang!" The Talosian nodded slowly and shrank back as one of the Reavers entered the cell. Sileia closed her eyes as there was a loud screech of pain that ended in a sickening gurgle. There was the sound of a body being dragged out of the room. Images flashed through her mind and she felt herself reverting to what she had been before. She was losing control.

What if she never regained her previous form for certain? What if it had simply been an illusion of that kind Talosian the Reaver had just killed?

No. She was a Vulcan. She was a Romulan. She was her mother's daughter. The daughter of Saavik. Bold, never ending courage. Saavik was going to get her through this. She felt her control returning. She could control this. She could. Her father was a Vulcan. His blood ran in her veins and she could control this. She was a daughter of the two best races in the verse.

She gasped as the Reavers threw her against the far wall and slammed the metal door. She curled up in the back and rested her head on her knees. The door slammed shut again with a dark and desolate sound. Then a tentative voice called out to her, hoarse with disuse,

"They got you any ways...you were our last hope." Sileia looked at them.

"You are helping them." A statement, not a question. "I'd never help you." The Talosians shook their heads. "What do they want you for?" she asked half-heartedly. "You're obviously useless to them. All you did was give them a reason to believe that there was some way they could achieve whatever they were doing with your damned illusions and mind twisting."

"They were going to kill us all Aislinn. We –"

"MY NAME'S SILEIA!" she screamed, rising abruptly. "But for a time you took even that from me! You are all gorram bastards for taking part in their sick minded plots! Tirang is dead because of you! All of Sinclair 12!"

"That was the Reavers," said another Talosian. "Not us. We were forced to create that machine. And now, they don't need that. They created a vaccine of sorts. A chemical. All they need to do is get it into the water system in Vulcan...and your species will be –" But Sileia was on a ranting role.

"You see this?!" she yelled, pulling her sleeve down to reveal the tattoo burned into her skin. "That is the sign of your whole operation –"

"_Their_ whole operation –" protested a Talosian.

"NO! YOURS! You took part in it, it's your mess, too! I'm branded forever like my mother with her Hell's Guard Brand! You stole my bond mate from me..." cried Sileia. She took several deep breaths before continuing. "What can you do? Can you get any of us out of here?" The Talosians looked at each other and one by one they shook their heads.

"No. We cannot." They looked at her and the leader spoke again. "But you can."

"How? How can I get out of here? I can't bend space and time or even matter like you. How do I get out of here?" The door clanged open and a whole battalion of Reavers walked in in their clumsy, animal gaits. The Talosians all fell silent and shrank back in their cages. In the center of the battalion was Agent Mohinder, three Romulans, and...

"_You!"_ hissed Sileia, lunging against the bars. "YOU BASTARD!" She grasped the bars and pulled and yanked as hard as she could as if she could break them with her anger. "What can you gain form this?! You had everything where you were before! After this you'll be nothing, have nothing!"

"No, not everything my foolish girl," said the deep, authoritative voice. "There was one thing I didn't have. Unlimited power, my dear Chotwl'. Unlimited power, me as a dictator over a whole wide universe. With an army of Reavers who give no regard to their physical or mental well-being and a whole population of assassins who were ex-Vulcans at my disposal." Cartwright shrugged. "It was too good to pass up. At first I was completely against it. I admire your parents, Chotwl': Spock and Saavik, but –" Spock was her dad?She left the thought for later analysis and began shouting again.

"MY NAME IS SILEIA!" she screamed, body slamming the bars, bending them slightly. "YOU CAN NEVER TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME!" Cartwright threw his head back and laughed lightly.

"Look at yourself, Sileia...vicious, lusting for blood...war-mongering. And you still have the guts to call yourself a Vulcan." he shook his head. "Sad...look how low your race has sunk..." The Romulan laughter mixed with the Reavers, creating a grating noise.

Sileia rested her forehead on the bars and took several deep breaths. She looked at the rusty, stained floor and saw a pool of the poor woman's blood. In the reflection, Tirang stared up at her, his solemn eyes giving her strength. He faded away, his dark eyes still on her from some hidden reflection.

"That which is done, can be undone. She who you are is not she who you were. That what was learned, cannot be...unlearned. All taught, all learned, all make thee. You are Sileia." Her eyes flashed a challenge. "Daughter of Saavik and Spock che Sarek che Surak. You can't destroy my Vulcan heritage or who I am. Never. It's like –"

"Pouring a teaspoon of water on a bonfire," finished Mohinder. "Yes, I know this speech, although the use of the Creed is a new one." He turned to Cartwright. "I told you this wasn't going to work! Vulcans are too stubborn to allow themselves to be taken prisoner and stripped of their heritage!" he hissed.

"Am I to understand that you are getting cold feet in this job, Mohinder? I thought you had assured me that there wouldn't be a problem with Chotwl'. You are the man who can get anything done are you not?" He paused and Mohinder's face took on a lighter shade of fear. "Are you telling me that you lied?"

"No, Cartwri – my lord." The Indian bowed. "I shall go and get the operation room ready."

"Don't sabotage my already weakening view of you, Mohinder," he said in warning and there was a delighted growl among the Reavers present at the tension and fear in the air. The door clanged shut as the Indian left.

"Moroccan," said Cartwright, turning to the lead Romulan. "Once the completion of Chotwl' is over, I want you to dispose of Mohinder. He has become too much of a liability."

"Yes My Lord. Thank you for this opportunity," he sneered at Sileia and turned heel, his two guards marching after him. Cartwright continued in his rambling.

"You see, there is a lot of potential in this plan. Those who obey my rule and submit will get to live in peace. Those who rebel will get destroyed by the ever so eager Reavers. You've seen what their handiwork looks like first hand. Fear factor will make me great. And so will the Vulcan people once I have placed the chemical in their water system."

"You're wrong," said Sileia softly. "We will get the word out. And we will will ourselves to death, and therefore ruin your plan. You can't control my people. You never have been able to and you never will." Cartwright nodded once.

"Right." He gestured for them to step forward. The Reavers came forward and opened the cell door. Their animal hands grabbed her and pinned her against the wall with their brute strength.

"We'll see what tune you're singing when this is all over. Soon, you'll be calling me My Lord, and following my every command." Her four word response was nearly enough to tip the Admiral over edge with her uncooperative attitude.

"The hell I will."

Spock limped into one of the alcoves that lined the dingy halls. The Reavers had an illogical and unmethodical means of attack that worked very well against those who were methodical and logical. He had several cuts running down his arms, back, chest, and face; and he felt as though his knee had been sprained. But he had had a few winning advantages. He was quicker, more skilled, and, well, sane.

Now, he was one stage closer in his plan of attack. He was sealing off all of the doors behind him under his voice lock. No one could sneak up behind him. And only he could escape back to the shuttle he had found on the outside of the ship. He sat down against the wall and set the two spikes on the ground beside him with barely a noise. He was exhausted and knew that it was too soon after his last visit to sickbay to be running around a ship looking for one girl. He paused as he heard footsteps ringing along the ground. He rose and stood silently in the shadows. He felt himself tense in shock and anger as he saw that the passing man was a Romulan. As the alien was about to walk by, Spock stepped out behind him, grabbed him, and dragged him into the alcove with him.

"Kiv tehnau fa-wek stau nash-veh du," he said lowly into the man's ear. _If you resist I will have to kill you._

"Vulcan?" he whispered. Spock pressed the pike gently against the man's back. "What do you want?"

"Where is Sileia?" he murmured. "The half-Vulcan, quarter Romulan, quarter human that your leader abducted from Star Base 6 several weeks ago."

"I won't tell you. And you can't kill me. I hold information that you need."

"What makes you say that? I can kill you in cold blood and get the information I need from your dead body through a mind meld." The Romulan hesitated unsure as to whether or not Spock could actually do that until he felt his blood running down his back.

"Okay. It is down the corridor I just came down." Spock hesitated.

"Show me. If you think I'll blindly trust you, you are grievously mistaken." Spock led the Romulan out of the alcove and followed his direction, limping, pike firmly against his back. He was getting closer to either his death of the death of this damned operation.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Vulcan, Two Days Previously**_

On Vulcan, Saavik paced back and forth in her room with Spock's family. It had been several years since she had seen her unofficial bond mate, and in light of recent events, she was worried. Cartwright had been a traitor and she had gotten the transmission telling her that from Christine and Uhura aboard the Enterprise. Sileia had been onboard her for a time. But then, she had gone missing temporarily and wasn't found until she had fallen from a ledge on the wall, trapped in a mind meld. They had beamed down to the planet, where a false McCoy had taken her back onboard that damned Reaver ship that had remained on the other side of the planet, out of sight and sensor range. She couldn't leave Spock to save their daughter all alone. She knew more than anyone else what a trapped and pressured Vulcan-Romulan would do. She paused before the huge french window and looked at the dying sunset. How could she tell Sarek what he needed to be told? "Saavik." Saavik spun around at the soft voice of Amanda Grayson. "Saavik dear, what is it? You've been most quiet lately." She walked over to her daughter-in-law and gently held her hand. "It's about Sileia, Amanda," she said softly. "I feel as though I need to go to Starfleet and report what has happened, but something is telling me to wait. It may be fear, but I'm not sure. I want to help them, but Uhura told me not to there were too many people involved already." "What does your heart tell you?" Saavik looked at the elderly woman. Amanda smiled at her and she nodded slowly as she looked out the window. "That I should go to Star Fleet. Tell them the truth and hope that they give me command of a vessel to go shut this operation down." Amanda nodded and squeezed Saavik's hand. "but how do I tell Sarek? It's not as though he has known of Sileia this whole time. What if he doesn't approve?" "I approve, Saavikam. And that is all that matters. Sarek will be notified of what has happened and of what he hasn't known all these years." Amanda smiled. "Trust me." Saavik nodded. "I have an appointment with Star Fleet," the Vulcan-Romulan said, turning around and walking from the room. Amanda stared at the retreating young woman and sighed. Sarek was going to have conniptions when he found out that his son and Saavik were bonded and had a child. "Where is Saavik going?" asked a voice and Amanda turned around to face her husband walking into the room. They both looked outside in time to see Saavik take off in a shuttle towards the local Star Fleet headquarters. Amanda took a deep breath. "She's gone after our son. Her bond mate." Yep. He was going into conniptions.

"We are very troubled to hear this report, Saavik. But you must understand that without any data to support your thesis, we can't do anything against Cartwright." Saavik felt a low anger bubbling inside her. She forced her hot blooded Romulan side down and allowed her diplomatic Vulcan side to surface. "I understand that it isn't much to go by, but I assure you that it is the truth." Saavik looked at them all one by one in the eye. "My husband, my daughter, and other Vulcan children, all Vulcans, are in danger of being attacked and annihilated. Turned into monsters, assassins with no ability to refuse orders. If you want proof," Saavik paused. "Call the _Enterprise. _They have been in charge of taking care of Sileia since they found her. You can ask them and they'll give you all the information that you need. All the proof." The men that she was standing in front of looked at each other reluctantly before nodding in consent. "We don't feel the need to ask the _Enterprise. _Since you are so sure about this, you can go forth with the _Excalibur_ and shut this operation down," said Admiral Smithson. Saavik bowed deeply. "Thank you, Admirals," she straightened and turned on her heel to walk out the door. Now, it was time for her to go.

She walked down the halls and into the hangar deck.

"Lieutenant Saavik," said a voice. She turned around, one eyebrow cocked in response to her Star Fleet title. There was a man and several officers behind him standing before the shuttle _Galileo 12_.

"We're your commanding officers. The ship's prepared in the dock." Saavik nodded gravely and walked into the shuttle. She sat down in the commanding chair and promptly began preparing for take off. Soon, all the senior commanding officers were strapped in their seats and she took off, guiding the small craft to the open space dock. She watched as the receiving bay opened and she piloted the craft perfectly onto the landing pad.

"Be prepared for exit, Captain," came a voice over the comm. "Pressurizing...all safe to come aboard."

"Thank you." Saavik shut down all controls and rose. The officers followed suit and they walked into the halls of the _Excalibur_. She didn't stop walking until she was in the bridge. "Set a course for the following coordinates: 56, Mark 42."

"Captain? That's out by the _Enterprise_'s coordinates."

"You are under the impression that I don't know that?" The navigator flinched under her hard stare. "56, Mark 42," she repeated slowly.

"Aye Captain." Saavik straightened.

"How long at Warp 5?" she asked. The navigator and helmsman looked at her like she was insane. "How long?"

"Four days." Saavik looked at them. Unacceptable.

"Proceed at Warp 8 for as long as possible until she can take no more. Then, reduce speed by small amounts." She sat down and looked at the viewing screen. "Engage."

_**Trans-U Reaver Vessel: Present Day**_

Sileia's swollen eyes cracked open slightly as she fell on the stone floor. Her lip was split and bleeding and her whole body ached. She could dimly hear the angered yelling above her head, but her mind was too numb to translate.

Maybe calling a Romulan a damned son of an Orion hadn't been the smartest move. But she was buying time. And time was what she needed most.

When she woke, she was propped up against the back wall of her cell, aching head limply hanging forward. She straightened and stood up. Her whole body was sore and she tried to walk to the door only to find that her foot was shackled to the wall. She looked around herself and saw all of the Talosians staring at her blankly.

"I'm sure that I look like I've been to hell and back," she said and wearily rubbed her eyes.

"No. You look like you've been to hell, through hell, and back," said one Talosian with a mild sense of humor. Sileia nodded and wearily sat back down. "You can't rest now. Not when you are so close to being free!"

"Free? Are you insane? I'm not a matter shifter like you! I have no power! I'm a normal Vulcan."

"No. You are changed. You are special and you need to learn to access that." Sileia closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "You have amazing strength. You just need to know how to access it. Take the power of Chotwl' and put it in the body of Sileia."

"Why can't you guys just spring me out of here?" The Talosian shook his head.

"That isn't how it works. We have been drugged, and can't use our powers. You can." She nodded in an of course manner.

"How long have I been out?" she mumbled, shaking her head as if to clear it.

"An hour and fifteen minutes to be exact." She looked to the doorway and saw a face that made her want to scream in anger. She looked pointedly to the other side of the room.

"I wasn't asking you Mohinder."

"I know. I was just answering since your Talosian cell mates are terrible with measuring the passing of time." She looked at him darkly before looking back at the far corner of the room.

"'el luSpet 'ej Hegh," she growled. Mohinder raised an eyebrow. More Reavers and Romulans walked in behind him. He pulled out a ring of keys and handed them to a Romulan who looked angry enough to chew her up and spit her out in bits small enough for an amoeba. That must have been the one that she called a damned son of an Orion...

"Bring her." Sileia lifted her head and looked at them warily.

"Bring me where?" she asked as the Reavers hauled her to her feet and the Romulan bound her feet and hands in manacles. They attached long chains to the manacles and placed a collar on her neck too with two long chains to lead her by.

"Where you're told to go." The Talosians all shifted nervously and muttered among themselves. They led her from her cell like a vicious animal, jerking and dragging her off balance.

"Where are we going?" She cried out in pain as one of the Reavers struck her in the side of the head with a metal implanted hand. There was a general animal laughter as they dragged her out of the cell.

Cartwright met them at the next door, and smirked at the helpless girl.

"We're going to fix you up, Chotwl'." Sileia hissed at him and tried to bite his hand as he reached out to pat her head. That earned her another hit from the Reaver with the metal implement in his hand.

"Tut, tut, tut...no manners."

He continued on and his moment was ruined as he walked into the door at the end of the hall.

He entered his pass code and tried again. Still nothing. The Romulan entered his and the door didn't open. The same result with Mohinder and the rest of the party. She saw the green smear on the corner of the door and then the open wires along the door jam. A small smile began to play at Sileia's lips.

"The door will not open!" said Cartwright in frustration. He body slammed the door, only to receive a massive electrical shock. Sileia's small hint of a smile broke into a broad grin. Then, there was a slight tap at the other end of the hall. They spun around just as half the lights turned out.

"What the hell?" asked Mohinder, looking around. There was no one around. Then, they saw the Romulan step out of one of the alcoves.

"Ayelv!" shouted Moroccan, the rather pissed off Romulan Sileia had called the son of an Orion. "Get over here and unlock this damn door!" Ayelv didn't move. Then, there was a low grunt as the alien fell forward and hit the ground, dead. Behind him stood a tall and battered figure holding the green covered spike in his hand.

"Cartwright, I hereby submit you to Star Fleet penalization laws that go with treason, kidnap, and murder." There was a general stirring among the people in the corridor opposite the Vulcan. Cartwright looked at him in an air of bemusement. "That means I get to kill you."

"You can try." Spock's eyes seemed to glow faintly as he said his next words.

"I plan to."

The rest of the bridge crew materialized in the same place as Spock had when he had first boarded. They took in their surroundings in the same way, looking around themselves with a sense of fear and premonition.

"A ship from hell for a people from hell," muttered Kirk under his breath.

"What poor souls live in a place like this?" whispered Uhura as they walked forward. McCoy looked at his tricorder with a sound of surprise.

"I'd like to know _how_ they live in here. There are major sections of radiation contaminated space. It's a miracle that any one has managed to live here." He showed the measurements to Scotty and the engineer gasped.

"Tha's just below the tolerance level!" He looked around himself. "No wonder the poor devils went mad." He walked along the walls and examined the structure. Chekov began examining the alcoves. His nose crinkled in distaste at the rotten smells that permeated from every where.

"She isn't made well at all, Captain. The engineer who made her had better watch his back for lettin' her get in this condition." Scotty continued to examine the ship. "I'd say tha she's built to take high speeds with no regard to her passengers. That would explain –"

"Keptain!" interrupted Chekov, horrified.

Sulu walked forward and looked into the alcove where Chekov was pointing. He visibly paled and took a few unsteady steps back.

"Captain. It's some Reavers. They're dead, sir. Mutilated and thrown together in a pile like their own victims." McCoy walked over and took a scan of them.

"There are residues of Vulcan blood and Vulcan hand prints on them." He looked up. "I think it's safe to assume that Spock has gotten past this point." Kirk nodded.

"Why would he get so violent about this?" asked Uhura, fingering her phaser with worry. "It's not something like that disease that hit that ship with the Tholians, is it?"

"No, Uhura," said McCoy softly. "This is the work of a man who's desperate and determined."

"Determined about what?" asked Sulu. "Spock's never emotional about anything, so what could he possibly want to go to this extent about?" The others nodded in agreement with Sulu's statement. Kirk and McCoy exchanged looks.

"Aye, captain. This behavior is very unusual for a Vulcan, particularly Mistar Spock," added Scotty. Jim sighed. McCoy pulled him aside.

"Are zhey related, or somezing?" asked Chekov, still shocked after seeing the dead bodies.

"You can't tell them, Jim," protested McCoy. "You can't just go and tell them about Spock's personal life. If he had wanted every one to know, then he would have left a whole bunch of tapes for everyone telling them what happened."

"He told you Bones that if you needed help, to trust and confide in the whole bridge crew and their families."

"He said to do that with taking care of Sileia. He said nothing about coming to rescue him. "Wait," he said sarcastically, "no, he told you to NOT go rescue him!"

"Bones, we can't be arguing now. We have a job to do. There'll come a time when they'll either be told or figure it out on their own." They walked back to the others and McCoy looked at the door before walking to it. The pushed and shoved, but it didn't move. There was no way for them to get farther into the ship.

"Captain," said Scotty, handing him the phasers. They aimed and fired, burning a narrow, jagged hole in the door. They slipped in and uncaught their clothes from the toothed metal. They slowly walked on and did the same thing to every door, until they came to one that was unlocked. They slowly pushed the door open and it creaked noisily, causing Sulu to wince.

"Captain," he said, turning to him. "I'll go in first. I'm a helmsman, the least necessary. Please."

"No!" said Chekov vehemently. "I vill go Hikaru. Don't risk your life." Before any of the others could say anything, Chekov slipped into the room, phaser ready.

"Captain!" he called softly. "I found the Talosians. We're alone." They walked in and balked at the grotesque situation before them.

Spock looked at Cartwright, Moroccan, Mohinder, the Reavers, and the rest of the Romulans with distaste written clearly across his face.

"Well, are you going to stand there or are you going to kill me, Spock?"

"I'll kill you, but I'll draw it out. Not all of our barbaric ways were forgotten." He looked at Sileia and asked her the unspoken question with a subtle telepathic message. She shook her head and he saw her brace herself, slowly wrapping her hands around the chains that bound her wrists.

"Let Sileia go and I will consider negotiations." Cartwright threw his head back and laughed.

Then, with a sudden jerk, Sileia ripped the chains from her captives hands and tried to run forward to Spock, but the Romulans jerked the chain on her collar back and Mohinder pulled the chains on her feet forward, landing her flat on her back. She cried out in surprise and shock. The crack as her head hit the ground seemed overly loud and when Sileia didn't move, and the blood pooled at the admiral's feet, the air filled with tension and fear.

"Sileia?" called Spock, telling himself to remain positive. She continued to lie there like a fallen angel, hair spread across the floor, eyes shut. With foreboding, Spock began searching with his mind.

_Sileia? Sileia?_ There was no noise still and Spock felt his breath coming in a little rougher and felt anger in him. He looked up from her prone body to the startled Romulans and Admiral. The only one who looked pleased with himself was Mohinder and the Reavers had that stupid animal look in their faces that came with the sight of broken bodies and blood.

"You killed her." It was a statement, not a question, or a suggestion. A simple statement filled with anger and rife with conflicting emotions. "You killed her." The anguish made everyone jump, even the Reavers, and all hell broke loose. The two pikes in Spock's hands flew at the two Reavers and pinned them to the walls, expressions of animal hunger and insanity still written on their bestial faces.

Mohinder took his phaser that he taken from his brief service aboard the _Enterprise _and blasted a hole in the door and he, Moroccan, and Cartwright made it through before Spock made it to them. The two remaining Romulans felt Spock's hand come down swiftly on the backs of their necks before they fell to the ground, dead with their necks snapped clean in half by the Tal-Shaya.

In Spock's opinion, they didn't deserve that quick death. He looked at the fleeing backs of the three men ahead of him and slammed his fist into the metal of the wall, leaving an obvious dent, as they went down a small hidden passage that he had missed.

Then, the haze of anger that had over come him temporarily vanished. He looked down at the red and green blood on his hands that wasn't his own. He looked down at the two dead Romulans, their heads turned at an unnatural angles. His eyes shifted to the pinned Reavers and to Ayelv on the floor. He thought to all the dead Reavers in the corridors. He looked down at his daughter Sileia and saw her half-closed eyes gazing up at him blankly.

What had he done?


	10. Chapter 10

The bridge crew of the _Enterprise_ hurried to break open all of the locks on the jail cells, and soon, they were surrounded by Talosians. Kirk pulled out his communicator.

"Giotto, Kirk here. Beam up all the Talosians. Immediately. Once they are on board, get them in the same place as the Sinclair 12 survivors."

"Aye sir." The communications died and they watched as the twenty Talosians were beamed up in groups of five. After four trips, they were alone in the brig level.

"Captain!" said Uhura, cocking her head to the side. "Listen, Captain. Did you hear that?"

They stood there, listening. Kirk shook his head and Scotty said,

"No, I don hear anythin' lass." The others were about to follow Scotty's example when Sulu stopped.

"No, wait." They paused and looked at the navigator. "There!" This one they all heard: pounding and crashing from the adjoining room. McCoy walked over and he and the others took out all of their phasers, aimed them at the door, and blasted it down with full force. They blew the last circuit and the lights went out.

Spock turned to the blown down door and felt a sense of defeat come over him.

"She's dead. I didn't get here fast enough." He said it so emotionlessly and calmly that McCoy felt a deep sense of unease in him. "And I have killed in the process. Killed for no reason than revenge and –"

"Spock," interrupted Uhura softly. "What's going on? Who's dead?"

With seemingly desolate and despairing movements, Spock turned around, knelt and they all hear the rattle of chains. When he turned back around, whatever back up system the Reaver ship had rebooted and half of the lights came back on. Uhura shrieked as she saw the dead Romulan at her feet, the two Reavers pinned to the wall, and the two Romulans with their heads twisted at unnatural angles by Spock's feet.

Sileia was laying limply in Spock's arms chains dragging on the floor, her normally clean and pristine hair drenched and dripping with green similar to what was running down the side of Spock's head. Her ears were pointed and eyebrows delicately sloped upwards. Now that she was Vulcan, Chekov felt the pieces fall in place in his head.

"Mistar Spock," he said softly. Spock just looked at him and his protege could see the faint glimmer of grief in the back of his eye. "Who's zhe mother?" Spock slowly closed his eyes and when he opened them, they all could see the barely restrained emotions in him. Without answering, Spock walked forward and eased through the broken door.

As Kirk, Bones, Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, and Uhura walked behind the Vulcans, the breaking out of small talk was inevitable.

"You really think that's his daughter, Pavel?" whispered Uhura, gently placing a hand on his arm.

"I'm positive, Nyota. Look at zhe vay he's valking. Stiff and cautious. And zhe vay he's holding her. Like she's a delicate flower he's afraid to crush." Chekov shook his head. "And zhen zhe vay that Jim and McCoy vere talking about telling us vhat vas going on...I believe zhat Sileia iz hiz daughter."

"Then, who's his wife?" came Sulu's voice in wonderment. "She has to be at least part Vulcan, because the chances of Sileia looking like a full Vulcan with only one quarter being Vulcan...I raise plants, so I should know. His wife or the mother has to be at least half or a quarter Vulcan."

"Well, can ye think of any at least half Vulcan that Mistar Spock has had at least the slightest interest in?" asked Scotty thinking aloud. "I canna think of anyone...can ye?"

Uhura gasped and grabbed Scotty's arm.

"I've got it." Everyone looked at her, asking her nonverbally to share her discovery. Up ahead, the trio of friends looked back at the communications officer, hoping that she had the wrong name. When she spoke again, Spock's heart sank.

"Saavik. Remember that sweet half-Romulan half-Vulcan girl that he and his family saved off of Hell's Guard? They became friends immediately and she was like a younger sister to him remember?" Uhura looked ahead at Spock's retreating form. "I'm happy for them...but sad at the same time. To lose a daughter..."

Spock sped up and continued walking down the hall, Sileia's chains clinking in a methodical rhythm that sounded like a strange funeral march.

When Spock finally slowed down enough for his two friends to catch up to his stride, they didn't speak. Jim and McCoy exchanged several looks and tried to get the other to say something first. When the silence stretched out to the point of being awkward, McCoy cleared his throat.

"I – I'm sorry, Spock." Spock didn't respond, but they noticed the slightest tightening of his jaw. "Do you...do you want me to make sure? I can scan her once we arrive at the beam up position." Spock continued walking and his friends began to grow very concerned over his prolonged silence. Then, he spoke, his voice soft and gentle.

"If it will satisfy your curiosity, doctor feel free. But if it is the way it seems, do not verbalize it." McCoy nodded in respect of his friend's request and Jim took up the conversation.

"I see you took to closing every single door as you went. Care to explain why?"

"It was quite logical. The doors were locked under my voice command and there was no way that I could be ambushed from behind or pursued as we made our escape. However, you have successfully sabotaged that idea." Jim smiled wryly.

"Well, we had to get to you didn't we?"

"I recall putting in that tape to not return to get me." Spock cocked his eyebrow slightly, but his friends could see that this was all a facade for them, trying to ease their worry by him acting like himself. But nothing could mask or change the ugly truth: he was carrying the corpse of his daughter.

"We're approaching site for beam up," said Kirk softly. Then, the ground seemed to tremble with pounding. Sulu turned around and he and Pavel raised their tricorders.

"Sir, we seem to have some visitors," said Sulu, turning to look at his captain. "The Reavers are coming. And they are coming fast."

"Zhere are Romulans among zhem too, Keptain," said Chekov, taking a full scan of the situation. "Zhey have phasers." The loyal bridge crew stared at each other and Uhura and the others pulled out their phasers as Kirk pulled out his communicator.

"Giotto! Kirk to _Enterprise, _Kirk to _Enterprise!_"

_Giotto, here captain...we seem...communication problems..._"

"Beam us up, immediately!" he nearly shouted into the communicator. "Beam Mr. Spock up first and –"

"No, Jim." Those present turned to look at him. "You, McCoy, Mr. Sulu, Lt. Uhura, and Mr. Scott beam up. Then, beam up Mr. Chekov and Sileia's body. I have some things that I need to discuss with my protege."

"What about you?" Spock looked at his friends and paused before answering.

"I will beam up with Mr. Chekov and Sileia. Go now before their transporter beam is affected as well." Reluctantly, Kirk gave the order.

"Beam up McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, and myself. Then beam up Mr. Chekov, Sileia, and Mr. Spock...have a medical team standing by."

"_Energizing."_ Spock watched as his friends Nyota, Hikaru, and Montgomery vanished. But mostly he watched his two best friends he ever had: Jim and Bones.

"Vhy didn't you beam up, Mistar Spock?" asked Chekov, staring at his mentor.

"I want you to take her to McCoy, Mister Chekov," said Spock to the startled ensign. "I want you to know that you have been one of the best of my proteges in my life of teaching students."

"Thank you, Mister Spock," said Pavel dazed. Spock rarely gave comments. "But vhy don't you take her to McCoy yourself?"

The approaching footsteps were coming louder and the animal shrieks and yells were getting louder as well. He set Sileia down on the ground and moved to the door, putting the bodies of the Reavers he had previously killed in the way of the door. Hopefully, that would keep them at bay for a time. He paused in his work and cocked his head. He had thought that he had heard something that hadn't been normal...

"Spock to engineering," said Spock. The voice of Kyle came through the communicator.

"Ready to beam up, sir?"

"Kyle, only beam up Mr. Chekov and Sileia. I need to short circuit this ship so it can't go any where any more."

"Aye sir."

Mr. Spock?!" cried Chekov reaching out to grab his mentor before he vanished so that he would be beamed up as well. But the Vulcan deftly stepped out of his reach, Chekov's hand brushing his sleeve.

He watched in satisfaction as Chekov and Sileia disappeared. Then, he picked up a pike and braced himself for the storm that was certain to come through that door.

"Where the hell is he?" asked McCoy as he saw Chekov and Sileia appear on the receiving pad.

"He said he had to short circuit something on the ship to make sure that it didn't run again," said Kyle.

"He lied!" said Chekov, feeling traumatized. He slowly lowered his arm from where he had tried to grab Spock. McCoy swore loudly and realized what the Vulcan had done.

"Ship's different..." came a soft voice. "She's slowed down..." Everyone slowly turned around to look at the transporter pad. There she was, sitting with her back perfectly straight, but resting mainly on her hands which were pressed flat on the ground behind her. She seemed tense and wide eyed.

"Sileia?!" cried the whole bridge crew. She turned to look at them, her green blood dried on her face and stiffening her hair. Her head tilted ever so slightly to the side, eyes distant.

"There's no moon on Vulcan..." she said softly and zoned out. "Nothing to wish upon or hope for...Nothing for them to say goodbye to...not at night...No moon here either...just dark and dark and dark!" Her voice started to escalate and she pressed her hands to the sides of her head. Christine Chapel ran over to her and gently placed a hand on her arm.

"Sileia, it's me...It's Christine." Sileia looked at her and began whispering.

"Come and come, you can't run...they come and come, and they won't stop until they get what they came for." Christine looked at them and whispered what the poor girl was trying to say.

"Reavers. We're their next target." Sileia shook her head.

"There's no moon on Vulcan...nowhere for them to hope...Orders...just following orders..."

"Order 66. It's us then Vulcan," said Sulu from the back of the room. "That's what she's trying to say. Order 66 eliminates us and then Vulcan has no moon to wish for hope upon."

"Kirk to bridge," Jim said into the comm. "Get us out of here."

"All on board?" Kirk looked at the transporter pad and swallowed.

"Just get us out of here. Kirk out."

"Jim!" said McCoy, voicing the stunned silence in the room. "Jim, Spock's still over there!"

"I know. But its what he told us to do. It was his final orders." With that, Kirk walked out the door and up to the bridge.

Uhura ran over to Sileia.

"Sileia, you need to help Spock." Sileia regarded her with a tilted and puzzled head. "Spock! Your dad!" She racked her brains trying to remember what Spock had said to her that day on the bridge. "Tirang? Tirang? Does that name ring a bell?" Still that blank look. "_T'nash-veh ha'su. T'nash-veh ha'su."_ Sileia's eyes lost that fog and that confusion.

"Sileia..." she whispered. "No! Sileia, not Aislinn, not Chotwl'! Sileia!" she pressed her hands to her head and repeated the muttering to herself and she slowly regained control.

"Where's Spock?" she asked, looking around. "Where is he?" Uhura whispered gently.

"He's still on the Reaver's ship." Sileia straightened and looked Kyle in the eye.

"Get these chains off. Beam me down. Clear the pad and beam me down before it's too late."

Spock knew he was going to lose this one. There wasn't anything he could do. He was already cut in several places and he knew that he was tiring. These beasts seemed to have the advantage when it came to unrelenting force and energy. He lashed out a few more times before he felt one of the pikes plunge into his side. He was glad it was his right side and not his left, otherwise he would be dead.

He gasped and fell down on the ground, clapping one hand on the open stab. He looked up at the ring of Reavers about him as they crowed in delight and pure, bloody-minded glee. They threw their heads back and screamed, howling in the excitement of drawing blood. Then, the Romulans came up to him. They looked down at him and one of them raised a phaser and slowly and deliberately aimed for his forehead. Then, with a quick alteration of aim, the phaser beam went into the stomach of a Reaver. Mayhem broke out again and Spock found himself back to back with the Romulan who had blasted a hole in the stomach of the Reaver who had been eagerly raising a chipped, rusty scimitar, just about to bring it down on his head.

Then, there was a whine of a transporter beam and the Reavers backed up into a semi-circle to face the form that was materializing. Spock stared in shock and disbelief at the form before him. Her face was turned to the floor and either hand was open, tense. Her hair was still stiff with her drying blood and it dangled before her face, concealing her emotions and expressions. She was dressed in the same black dress she had been wearing before hand.

She relaxed her hands and the tension in the air lowered. The Romulan took Spock and dragged him to the wall seconds before the deadly ballet began.

She kicked the nearest Reaver in the side of the head, planted her feet back on the floor, and used her momentum to spin across and kick another in the back of the head. Another came to take his place and she stepped down hard on the top of his head, knocking him to the floor.

There was a fallen and broken crate that she kicked across the floor into another's legs and he fell clean over. A screaming savage ran at her from the side and she ducked, swinging her leg out and flipping him clean over. She sprinted at another two and met them head on, back flipping and kicking both in the chest.

She sensed the one behind her and swung around, elbows at shoulder height, catching him a glancing blow to one side of the head and spinning around to hit him in the other. He fell on his back and she moved deftly to the side, dodging another as he ran past her. She grabbed his shoulders from behind and pulled him back on the ground with amazing force. She turned to get a fist in the face from another Reaver. Barely fazed, she took a half step back and kicked him in the chest, launching him backwards.

One ran at Sileia, arm raised and she kicked it down to the floor, pushing him onto his back. But strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her upright. She tried to break free, but saw another coming at her.

She leaned back and used the Reaver holding her as a backboard. She kicked her legs up and pushed the oncoming creature back. She planted her feet soundly back on the ground and leaned forward, kicking the man holding her in the back of the head. He let go in pain, and she seized his hand, stepping away from him and spinning under his outstretched arm so she was standing beside him, bringing a leg into his face. Still grabbing his hand, she spun back under his arm to face another Romulan. She elbowed him in the chest and brought a knee into his face. She flipped the barbarian who had been holding her head over heels with one arm. He crashed to the blood slick floor and she ducked a malicious swing with a sword, standing back up almost immediately.

A quick kick to his arm and another to his head landed him on the floor with amazing rapidity. The rest closed in on her and she ran at the wall, jumping from the floor to a ledge, kicking another Reaver in the head, sending him crashing back to the floor. She knocked two more down with her swiftly delivered, fatal kicks and punched another in the stomach. One more ran at her and she crouched on the ground, spread out, and lashed out with one leg, sending another him falling off the high loft.

She rose and with incredible grace and speed, front flipped down to the floor once more. When she landed on her feet, she kicked another man in the chest, sending him flying before leaning forward to kick a savage behind her in the back of the head who was raising an axe to strike her down. She ran and two Reavers approached at her from both sides at the same time.

She hit one in the head to slow him down, spun around to punch the other and ducked the first's malicious swing. He was thrown off balance and she stood back up, hooking him and throwing him to the floor. She spun back to the second and hit him in the throat. He too fell.

The remaining Romulan waiting for an opening and took his chance to run forward with a knife drawn. She spun in a tight twirl and brought her hands down to clamp on his knife arm and thrust it forward into the chest of an approaching beast. He fell and she twisted the knife man's arm back and kicked his face with her knee. She released him and let him fall to the floor. Another Romulan came at her with a phaser and she grabbed his hand before he could pull the trigger.

She yanked him forward and pulled the trigger for him, shooting another Reaver at the other end of the room. She spun around and aimed the phaser at the only two people left in the room: Spock and the mysterious Romulan.

Pressing one hand to his side, Spock gently made an "easy" motion. He looked around the room and raised an eyebrow in genuine shock and amazement. She had not only come to life, but had dispatched a whole battalion of Reavers.

Then, Sileia's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed to the ground, passed out from something Spock didn't know.

Grimacing, the Vulcan pulled out his communicator.

"Wait." Spock looked at the Romulan above him. "I just want to tell you that you need to get to Vulcan before this ship. It's imperative. I've already sent her a message."

"Who are you? Why did you help me? Who is 'her'?" The Romulan allowed a small smile to play at his lips before he answered the injured man.

"You didn't seriously believe that your wife would leave you alone in this job did you?" Spock wearily raised one eyebrow and nodded in acknowledgement of that statement. Then, there was a loud bang and the Romulan went flying and was pinned to the wall with a large javelin. In his torn uniform, Spock could see the Hell's Guard brand on his arm. It was one of Saavik's friends, one of the survivors.

Spock looked down the hallway and saw Cartwright, Mohinder and the others approaching. He wasn't waiting around for them to show up. Moaning once with the pain of standing up, he picked his daughter up and held her close, calling into the communicator,

"_Enterprise_! Beam up, now!" He felt the familiar tingling sensation as the transporter beam was energized. He watching in slight fear as Mohinder threw a syringe at him and he knew from Sileia's memory that the Indian had impeccable aim and strength. And he had a fair idea of what was inside that shot.

The syringe spun end over end, glinting in the faint glimmer of light that came from the half on lights. The transport was almost complete. Darkness.

When the world rematerialized, he was standing in the transporter room, staring at several people: Jim, Sulu, Chekov, Christine, Uhura, McCoy, Scotty, Kyle, a lot of medical personnel, and one or two security members. He passed Sileia to Christine and McCoy who placed her gently on the gurney. Then, he looked down at the pike stab. It was inconveniencing his ability to breath normally.

The medical instrument was firmly implanted in his side, near the wound. He grabbed the shot and pulled it out, handing it to McCoy.

"Be very careful with this. None of it was injected into me, luckily."

"Hell and damnation, Spock!" shouted McCoy, before three things happened. The first was that Sileia sat upright and screamed. The second was that McCoy caught Spock as he stumbled from blood loss. The third was that the ship suddenly rocked with a large impact and the red klaxon alert went off.

The Reavers had them.

"Get these two in sick bay stat!" yelled McCoy and the two Vulcans were wheeled away to sickbay, Spock having been given an oxygen mask to assist with his breathing. As McCoy left the transporter room, he told Kirk,

"I'll do everything I can for him, Jim." Kirk nodded his thanks before taking off to the bridge.

The whole bridge crew was back on duty except for Spock and the situation was dire.

"What's going on?" asked Kirk sitting down.

"It's the Reaver magnetic grappler, sir," said Sulu, looking down at his panel. From his worried tone, that wasn't a good thing.

"The Reaver what?" asked Kirk, leaning forward and peering at the strange contraption attached to the _Enterprise_ hull.

"It's zhe Reaver equivalent of a tractor beam, but a magnetic grappler is much more...tangible," answered Chekov, turning to his captain. "A large, in zhis case, enormous, clamp is deployed and fired like a grappling hook at anozher spaceship. Zhis grapple is on a tezher, which is zhen reeled in. Zhe grapple has a relatively short range, roughly 2000 feet or 600 meters. It is very unlikely zhat breaking away is possible once zhe grapnel is attached. And even if ve do, it vill take about two minutes sir, for all our systems to get back on line."

"I don't need the whole encyclopedia, Mister Chekov," said Kirk half-heartedly. "Fire phasers

to try to sever the cord."

"Can't, sir," said Sulu, trying to get the angle right. "They've placed it just right."

"What do you mean, Mr. Sulu?" asked Kirk. "Sever that damn thing!"

"I can't sir!" repeated Sulu, angrily, turning to Jim."She has a blind spot with weaponry, she can't hit items that are right in front of her nose!" Kirk rose and began pacing in tenseness and worry.

"Shoot the Reavers then!" he said walking over to the battle-master's station. "Or can you not do that either?"

"Can't sir, they are operating without a central containment. That releases a lot of highly volatile radiation. We blow that ship up, or even hit her in the right place, we'll explode," said Sulu reluctantly.

"Gun the engines then; try to break free. Go to Warp 9 if you must!"

"Look at them struggling so, Commander Koln," said Cartwright gleefully as they watched the

_Enterprise_ struggle to break free of the immensely powerful magnetic grapple. The Reaver beside him

grinned in their evil, bestial way.

"Imagine, a whole life of doing this to people you either want to make an example out of or

need to subdue." Again, that bestial grin.

"You have...done a service...to Reavers, Cartwright," he growled. The Admiral still found it amazing that those people had managed to defeat the primary boundaries of speech. The _Enterprise_ continued to grow closer and the ship was nearly in the dock.

There would be no dawn for Kirk's grand old lady.


	11. Chapter 11

"Sileia, you need to sit down!"

"NO! I need to get to the Captain, I need to warn him!" she sat up and fought against the doctors and nurses in sick bay who were trying to restrain her.

"Damn, she's just as bad as her father!" scowled Christine. Then, there was a loud crash as the feisty Vulcan-Romulan flipped out of the bed and scampered out the door.

"DAMN IT!" shouted McCoy. "Bring her back here!"

Sileia sprinted up to the halls and glanced briefly in the reflections of herself. Tirang ran beside her and she knew that she was going to be okay. She skidded into the turbolift and the doors slid shut before the nurses and doctors could catch up. She waited impatiently for the turbolift to reach the bridge and when she entered, she swore in every language she knew, which was extensive, since she was a genius in everything.

The whole crew turned to look at her and she blushed a slightly darker shade of green.

"Captain, since I know how to move in that infernal ship, I submit myself to go onboard and shut it down."

"I'm sorry, Sileia, but it's too dangerous. You –"

"Could get hurt, yes. Just like it was dangerous on Sinclair 12. Just as it was dangerous on board when I took out a whole battalion with my bare hands." She looked at Jim seriously for her age of eleven and a half.

"Please let me go." She saw that he was on the verge of consent and added the last words.

"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few or the one." Kirk looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I can't argue with a little Spock can I?" She cocked an eyebrow.

Soon, she found herself back in one of her _Enterprise _medical officer outfits and walking at a brisk pace down the hall to the transporter room, Kirk briefing her on the way.

"We're just maintaining a thrust against the pull. You have fifteen minutes before we're stuck in the ship. And when we're boarded..."

"There's no stopping them." She looked up at Kirk. "I know. I was on Sinclair 12, remember? If you are boarded, arm everyone, use the Talosians for illusions and protect the children that we picked up on Sinclair 12." Kirk nodded.

"We're counting on you. Remember that." Sileia nodded and said as she was vanishing in the transporter beam,

"I won't fail."

Sileia fell silent and crouched on the ground as she saw the bridge materialize around her. She crawled around the back of the machinery and kept mostly to the shadows. She was about to step out of her cover when a hand clapped across her mouth and pulled her back in the shadows.

"Shhh..." breathed someone and Sileia relaxed. Tirang. She broke away from him and turned to him.

"Why are you here?" she asked. "You're dead." Tirang shook his head. "You. Are. Dead. I saw you get killed twice. Once in the lab and once on Sinclair 12."

"You've died once already, too," he said softly. "You died here in front of Spock. But yet you are here. How do you explain that?"

"Duality of souls?" Tirang nodded.

"When the Talosians gave us that treatment, they gave us two lives. One that was us, our katra, our soul, our memories. One that _was_ us...and another that was what they wanted us to be. A murderer. You killed without remembering the last time you were here. When we escaped, you killed the Romulans and the Talosians. That was your second life. That's why you were so confused and lost and peculiar. Now, you are who you really are, Sileia. That is your real life, your real soul that had been locked away to give you another life. A violent one."

"You lost that first life, Tirang...in the lab. Your assassin died, leaving the real you. That was the one that they killed on Sinclair 12...You are dead. How are you here?"

"I am a figment of your mind. Your beautiful mind giving form to me. I reside in you and I have always been here for you, giving you strength and courage."

"Your katra?" whispered Sileia. "You gave me your katra?" She gasped and shrank back in the shadows as the shadow of a man fell across her.

Back before the viewing screen, Cartwright was talking to Commander Koln, the Reaver.

"Soon, your people will have 400 plus men and women to feast on...and you'll get a nice cold dessert too...revenge. Aren't you –"

"Found you you little bitch!" screamed Mohinder. Sileia screamed as she was dragged from the shadows and she fought and bit. The Reavers surrounded her with their axes and pikes and other remorseless pieces of metal. She was dragged before the Admiral and Mohinder gave him the hypo. He raised it to plunge it into her neck. Then, everything went haywire.

She wrenched an arm free and punched one Reaver in the stomach. He fell to the side and she twisted around so that she could grab the hilt of a long handled axe that one Reaver swung at her. Using it as a balance, she kicked another Reaver in his side, and wrenched the axe from the hands of the startled savage. She shouldered him heavily and sent him flying. She swung the axe and killed another with a single hew of rusted metal. She ran from the confused group of people and stopped the retraction of the cord that was attached to the grappling magnet. But before she could detach it, the Reavers seized her and pulled her back from the control panel.

She screamed and stretched her arms trying to finish what she had started, but she couldn't hit the last button. She was thrown back into the middle of the fray and one of the Reavers threw his head back and howled. She lunged forward and punched him in the face really hard, sending him to the floor.

She straightened and swung the axe at another behind her before flicking her wrists to turn the axe around thrusting to the left this time. She swung the axe in a murderous arc to the right, ridding herself of a few more opponents.

Another barbarian ran at her from the left and, still facing the right, she flicked the pike on the end of the axe to face him head on. It pierced his stomach and she kicked him back the way he came with a vicious back swipe with her leg, snatching his sword from him as he fell down.

She spun around to face her left again and swung the axe and sword over her head, striking some behind her and using her momentum to swing back to face the right. She continued to swing in vicious circles, swinging the axe and saber in a bewildering series of flicks, stabs, and slashes, like a flickering snake tongue. She swung both in opposite directions, taking out two on either side.

She ran forward and kicked a Reaver flat on his back who was rising with a spear, used the momentum of the kick to face the other way, and bent over backwards, crossing her arms and swinging her right one to the right and her left to the left, completing a full circle.

But luck and skill was running short on her side.

She had to cross her weapons to block the downwards arc of the savage before her and that gave the Reaver behind her the chance to grab her around the waist. He threw her violently forward and she crashed into the wall, dropping one of her weapons.

"Oh, God...noooo-oooooo!" she shrieked as she continued to fight. "Nooo-oooo!" Her voice was a sad and despairing wail. Cartwright smirked as he looked at the startled bridge crew that he had opened a communications channel with.

"She managed to stop the retraction!" cried Sulu.

"Yes, go Mr. Sulu! Punch it!" The _Enterprise_ strained against the cord, but they were still held fast. The Reaver ship seemed to be using the gravitational pull of the planet below them as an anchor, one the starship couldn't break.

"Come on, Sileia ol' buddy, don't let me down," muttered Kirk, staring at the viewing screen.

"Captain, I'm receiving a hail," said Uhura. "It's Admiral Cartwright, sir."

"On screen." The whole bridge crew balked as they first heard violence and fighting and then saw Sileia twisting, turning, stabbing, and kicking like a whirlwind of death.

"That's what was running loose on your ship, Captain." Cartwright smirked. "I'm afraid she doesn't have much time left..." They watched until she was thrown against the wall, then they lost visual.

_Oh God...Nooooo-oooooo! Noo-oooo! _They all winced at Sileia's screams and desperately wanted to know what was happening. Then, silence.

Cartwright was still standing by the communications, back to the brawl. But he felt a sense of unease when everything fell silent. He turned around, gasping and falling back on the control panel, turning visual on again.

Back on the _Enterprise_, Chekov nearly jumped up and screamed in joy.

"She'z alive, keptain!" he yelled. Then, they were silent in shock. She was standing there, her face turned to the floor her hand holding an axe. Her hair was still stiff with her drying blood and it dangled before her face, concealing her emotions and expressions. All around her were the dead Reavers and Romulans. Then she looked at Cartwright and both aimed a phaser at each other. She was perfectly fine with no wounds or cuts on her whatsoever. He was the same. She slowly looked up.

"It seems we are at a stalemate, Chotwl'." He tilted his head in praise. "A fine show you put up there."

"You will let the _Enterprise_ go," she said. She winced as she saw the horrified looks of those that were on the bridge. Unbeknownst to her, her speech was being broadcasted all over the ship by Cartwright. Everyone was teary eyed and staring at the viewing screens available to them.

In sickbay, Spock was staring at the ceiling in defeated pride and sorrow. Beside him, Bones rested a hand on his shoulder.

"I will stay with you if you agree to let her go. Free and unharmed. I will stay forever with you, let you test on me, just let them go." Cartwright nodded thoughtfully.

"Proposition accepted." Sileia winced as she felt the scream of mental sorrow that radiated from the flagship. "Commander Koln," he said. The Reaver who hadn't joined the blood bath looked at Cartwright. "Release them from the magnetic grapple. We have who we need." The Reaver growled in disapproval at the aspect of letting prey go, but at the dark look the admiral shot at him, he mutinously obeyed.

"Restrain her!" shouted Cartwright and the Reavers moved to chain her to the railing that was near by. Sileia allowed herself to be pushed and shoved into position and didn't refuse or rebel. Then, Cartwright threw back his head and laughed.

"You didn't really expect me to honor that decision, did you?" He turned to Koln. "Reattach the grapple. Bring them in."

"NO!" screamed Sileia, straining against the chains. "You lying bastard!"

"Sir, zhe grapple has been detached," came Chekov's dull voice as Cartwright kept his end of the bargain. "Systems are coming back online." Uhura wiped her eyes and looked at her console.

"Communication cut off, sir," she whispered.

Sulu was sitting still at his station, looking at the screen with a sort of awe in his eyes for the sacrifice Sileia had just made for them. Scotty was sitting there, head in his hands, muttering and moaning to himself.

"Why did she have to do it?" asked Sulu.

"Because we were her family, Mr. Sulu. Because she felt duty bound to sacrificing herself for us. For him."

In sickbay, there was no talking, but McCoy and Christine were seated by Spock, who was grieving in his own small way. All he said was,

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." And all the CMO and his head nurse did was bow their heads and squeeze Spock's shoulder (in the case of McCoy) and his arm (Chapel). They were too moved to speak.

Ten seconds later, ship lurched and the red alert klaxon went off again.

Back on the bridge, people were running about, getting to general quarters. Kirk watched as the grapple pulled them closer to the mouth of the Reaver's docking bay. Then, the door to the turbo lift opened and everyone looked on in mild surprise as Spock limped in with the help of Nurse Chapel and McCoy. This was it. The last fight of the _Enterprise_. The crew looked at each other one last time. Their expressions were grim, and there was an atmosphere of finality surrounding their every move.


	12. Chapter 12

"Did you really think that I was that stupid, you little girl?!" spat Cartwright, looking at the distraught Vulcan. "Did you really think that I would keep my promise? Lower the shields!"

"Sir, there's another ship coming in!" yelled the last Romulan operating at the scanners the star fleet admiral had implanted in the ships databases. "It's the _Excalibur!_"

Cartwright looked up in shock as another federation starship came out of full warp upon them, phasers blazing a fiery red trail through space. The cord was severed with an explosion and the front of their ship was sabotaged.

On board the bridge, Saavik was seated at the battle arms master's post, where Sulu would be seated on the _Enterprise_. The star ship was in full military mode, aim deadly and precise. Everyone on that bridge regarded their Vulcan-Romulan captain with respect now. They had thought her impulsive and inexperienced, but now that they saw her in action, they were proud to serve under her.

Back on the Reaver ship, alarms were going off and Reavers were stumbling around the room before Cartwright.

He turned and grabbed Mohinder, who was moaning on the floor. He began to run out the bridge before glancing once at Sileia, who was still struggling to break free of her imprisonment.

He hurled one last insult at the damned girl.

"I won't bother to take you. There'll be plenty of children like you where I'm headed." He turned and ran out the door. Sileia barely caught his parting words and when he realized what he had said, she screamed in anger and frustration.

Vulcan. He was going for Vulcan next.

Cartwright ran down the halls, dragging the injured doctor after him.

"Where – are – we – going?" panted Mohinder, grabbing his leg in pain.

"A shuttle. I hid one on the outside of this damned ship before we left port. We shall escape in that and proceed to Vulcan." They stumbled to the entrance and clambered into the small craft.

Soon, they were gone, racing into the night with a Romulan cloaking device, leaving the Reavers to their fate.

Sileia coughed on the smoke filled air and pulled at the chains, looking for something, anything that she could use to break free. There was nothing.

She looked at the cockpit window and smiled as she saw the _Enterprise _reboot and straighten. She knew that that ship would be flying for generations. Nothing could hold her down. The _Excalibur _was beside her and a few phasers were still firing upon the ship. That was when the young girl realized that they were going to destroy the ship she was on.

She accepted this fate and closed her eyes. The air was quickly becoming more thin and she opened her eyes to look beside her at Tirang. The boy was barely there since her mind was fading. But he laid a hand gently on her arm and she felt her eyes slide shut.

When the firing stopped, the two crews of the Enterprise and the Excalibur scanned for life forms and found one faint one. They locked on it and beamed the person aboard.

Saavik stood beside Spock and they waited as the small form was finished being beamed aboard the _Excalibur_.

"No. No, no, no, no!" She ran forward but Spock caught her arm and her maddened rush swung her back around into him. He wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed and screamed. Her hands were clenched in tight fists, holding handfuls of his uniform. Her loud heart-broken sobs rang throughout the room and McCoy ran unsteadily over to Sileia a hand pressed to his healing leg.

She was laying there in a most undignified manner. Her head hung back, her wide open eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling. Her body was in a position that said quite clearly that she hadn't put herself in that situation.

McCoy gently lifted her into a more comfortable position and felt for a pulse. He called out for one of his medical assistants to get his ass over there and he snatched the oxygen mask from him. He pressed it lightly over her mouth and waited. Then, the acrylic material fogged in a rhythmic pattern.

Spock released his breath slowly and he felt relief sweep over him. "And that Mr. Spock," said McCoy grinning, "is what we humans call a _sigh_ of _relief_." Spock gave him a don't start that now look before Saavik pulled him over to his daughter.

Sileia turned to smile ever so slightly at her mother. Then, her expression grew somber. Both her parents knelt by her, Saavik holding her hands and Spock resting his hand on her shoulder.

"A'nirih," she whispered, wincing as her mother rubbed her wrists. "A'nirih, they're hitting Vulcan," she took a deep breath and gave the impression of one that had just ran a far distance to deliver this message. "They're going to end what they started." Saavik looked at Spock.

"I shall return to the _Enterprise,_" said Spock, helping Sileia up. Saavik looked at him seriously. "Please keep an eye on her this time." Saavik gave him that look that said if you don't I will kill you.

When Spock and Sileia materialized on the pad, smiles broke throughout the whole transporter room. Only two people weren't smiling: the two who had just arrived.

"They're attacking Vulcan." Three words that dashed the happy mood in the immediate vicinity. Spock put a hand on Sileia's shoulder and they walked quickly out of the room and the security members in the transporter room looked at each other with a look of horror and a resigned sense of here we go again.

Then, one of the red shirts stated what had been bothering them all since this started.

"Why is it always Vulcan?" No one answered because no one knew the answer. It seemed that that peaceful planet was just doomed to destruction every other day.

Back on the bridge, Sileia was seated in Spock's science department chair while she caught her breath and got resettled.

"They aren't going to stop, Captain. And unless you want to be charged with the knowledge of the attack and subsequent inaction, I would go to Vulcan as fast as is possible. We have the _Excalibur _with us, so it's not like we're alone," said Sileia, exhaustion seeping through her. She was trembling too in her hands and she noticed Spock's concerned look.

"It's nothing," she assured him. "I just killed about fifty men, so...adrenaline." Spock looked at her extremely concerned when she said killed fifty men. "I can't help it, okay!" she said, angrily. "I can't not kill when I'm put in that situation. And it worked very well, if I might add."

"Sileia, you shouldn't have sacrificed yourself for us when you were on board. You shouldn't have struck that deal," said Kirk seriously, looking at her. Sileia regarded him in disbelief.

"You would have done the same thing," she responded quietly. And with that, Kirk had to agree. He would have.

"_Enterprise to Excalibur, Enterprise to Excalibur, come in Excalibur."_ Saavik put the hail on screen,

"_Excalibur_ here, what is it, _Enterprise?_" she asked looking forward with her serious eyes.

"We're heading to Vulcan to head off Cartwright. We need to warn the population that there is going to be some intense fighting in their area, so we were wondering if you and Spock could coordinate with your highly influential family members." Saavik shook her head.

'I'm afraid that isn't a possibility, Captain Kirk." Kirk seemed taken aback by her refusal.

"Well...why not if I might ask?" A slight smile played across the woman's face and the expression was mirrored by Sileia as she moved behind the captain.

"Because I already made the call. And the _Excalibur_ shall follow you into battle, _Enterprise_. We shall enter at Warp 6 in 1 minute, sir. Saavik out."

Kirk looked at the blank screen and turned to Spock.

"Spock is it just me or does inordinate stubbornness and thinking ahead run in your family?" Spock raised an eyebrow at Kirk's annoyed tone.

"Indeed it does. That is what happens when you are part human." Beside them, McCoy choked on his coffee before spinning around to look at Spock in amazement. "Yes doctor?"

"You just admitted that you have emotion!"

"No, doctor, I said that my family has a tendency to be stubborn. That –"

"Stubbornness is an emotion, you green-blooded hobgoblin!" shouted McCoy and the following argument that ensued caused the whole bridge to erupt in sporadic fits of laughter and giggling.

"ALL RIGHT YOU TWO!" Kirk half shouted, half laughed. "Engaging Warp Drive in three, two, one." The _Enterprise _with the _Excalibur_ in pursuit shot away in the direction of Vulcan.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Forty-Eight Hours Later**_

The loud howls of hunger and the terrified screams of the people shook the small group hiding in the corner to their core. Only one girl among them was brave and strong. She looked around her burning world and saw the savages and ex-Vulcans raiding the city. Another mutilated man fell near them and a few of the people screamed. The girl turned to them.

"Just focus! The Admiral and his men said they were gonna waltz through our city T'Paal. And we choked 'em with those words," Sileia paused to push her hair out of her eyes. She looked at every single stone cold Vulcan, Talosian, and Sinclairian around her and tried to inspire them.

"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty. Just a little while longer. Our angels are gonna be soaring overhead, raining fire on those arrogant khags. So you hold." She looked at them and when she saw their fear and hesitance, she shouted. "You hold! Go!"

The remaining Vulcans and survivors from Cartwright's mad plan rose from their hiding position and raised the bows that the replicator on the _Enterprise_ had managed to produce. They looked at Sileia once and she led the attack firing once upon the group of Reavers that were running blindly, screaming. Vulcan aim was deadly and none of the Reavers moved again. Sileia squinted at the sky. She could only hope that Scotty was going to be done with the adjustments on the shuttle craft soon. They needed that air support. Then, the air around them exploded.

_**Forty-Eight Hours Earlier**_

Sileia limped slightly as she walked back to her quarters. They were set up across the hall from Spock's and she reached up to trace her father's name on the plate. She walked in momentarily and stood there. Nostalgia swept over her like a wave of sickness: the incense, the style, the lyre, the – she tripped forward and caught herself on the edge of his bed.

She stumbled from his room and continued in to her room, falling on her back into the soft mattress.

"Lights ten percent," she croaked.

She stared up at the cold, plain ceiling and felt her eyes well with tears. The last time she had been on a real bed, in her own room, on her own volition, had been weeks ago at her mother's home on Vulcan. Now, she found where she belonged. In space, roaming the stars, away from all and any racism, free as the birds that ruled the skies. She took in a shaky breath and felt the tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She wished she could go back in time, destroy that Reaver ship before it abducted her and Tirang from that station along with the other five Vulcan children who had been there for classes or training. If only she could change the past. She knew that the _Enterprise_ was capable of time warp, but that it took strenuous circumstances and the outcomes were rarely good. In fact, they were often for the worse. You get seen by yourself, you stop an event that was essential to history from happening. She remembered the Guardian of Forever. She didn't need that to happen.

She sighed and let the two tears fall down the sides of her head. She began searching in her mind, trying to find him, but she couldn't.

_Who am I? What am I?_ She waited for Tirang to appear and give her the reassurance that she needed, waited for his katra to come back to her and reassure her, tell her who she was, what she was. But she waited for nothing. No one came. Not the slightest touch of his mind or the whisper of his presence. She fell asleep.

The door buzzed. She ignored it. It buzzed again. Finally, she woke up, moaning.

"Sileia?" came the deep voice. "Sileia it's me, Spock. May I enter?" Sileia took a deep breath and called out loud enough for him to hear.

"Enter." Spock walked in and let the door slide shut behind him. She continued to look at the ceiling. He walked over and sat on the bed beside her.

"Have you noticed anything of extreme or slight interest in the patterns of the ceiling?" he asked, noting her fixed gaze upward. She shook her head.

"He's not here." Spock's brow furrowed and he looked at her shadowed complexion, worried.

"Who isn't here?" She didn't blink once, but answered his question nevertheless.

"He to who I am forever bonded. He should be here."

"I'm sorry that they used my image to take him from you. He should be here," agreed Spock. Sileia shook his head.

"No. He _should be here,_" repeated Sileia. "He should be here. But he's not. Where is he?" Spock frowned.

"I'm not sure I understand what you are talking about Sileia." She looked at him and her expression said that it should be obvious.

"He should be here," she repeated simply. Spock nodded once and told himself to get her to sickbay for a mental scan.

"I came to tell you that Tetrarch didn't make it. The Talosian who was the leader. They had given him a slow poison that we couldn't identify until it was much too late." Sileia nodded, and knew then why he wasn't there anymore.

He never had been. His katra had never been in her. That had been the Talosian leader giving a form to her mind, and an assistant and friend to keep her going. She wasn't mad now that she thought about it. She was thankful for the man's insightful contribution to her. Tirang had been instrumental in regaining her sanity and keeping her alive. The hope he had offered. Sileia turned her head finally to look at him.

Spock finally saw that she looked ill, dark circles under her eyes and pale complexion.

"Lights fifty percent," he placed a hand on her forehead. "Ko-fu, how are you feeling?" She rolled over onto her side before unsteadily sitting up. He felt unease in him at her shaky and soft voice as she said,

"I threw up." He gently rubbed her back in smooth circular motions.

"I'm sorry, it's a side effect of the medications for your head aches and...your other symptoms. McCoy just has to find the right treatment for you. How do you feel now?" They both knew that she was still unstable, occasionally having mood swings between her dual personalities.

**"**Going. Going back, like apple bits, coming back up." Her brow furrowed and she shook her head. "Chaos."

"But you felt okay when we first came back after that incident?" Spock asked, looking at her face. She smiled wanly,

"I argued with the captain. Ran away from sickbay. The sun came out, and…I walked on my feet, and…heard with my ears. I learned of the ship. The knowledge stayed. And I work. I...function like I'm a girl," her voice broke and she sobbed. _"_I hate it because I know it'll go away!" Another sob broke her speech. "The sun grows dark, and chaos is come again," her voice escalated and she began crying, _"_Thoughts...fluids! What am I?"

"Shh-shh..." whispered Spock, holding her reassuringly. "You...are my beautiful daughter. And no one can take you away from me." Sileia nodded into his shoulder and clung to him tightly. Then, she tentatively spoke,

"I...I threw up on your bed." Spock winced and then let a small smirk show through his stern facade.

"Yes. Definitely my daughter." Sileia smiled and laughed ever so slightly while still crying into Spock's shoulder. When she felt Spock's hand slide up to her neck and start to pinch her shoulder, she didn't resist. She needed to sleep and falling asleep by her father's hand was better than any other way she could think of.

Spock gently laid her down on her bed and pulled the covers over her still form. His brow furrowed as he saw a small scar on the side of her head in her hair line. He gently brushed her hair back and saw a straight line that circled half of her head until it stopped, or rather faded. He rose and walked over to the comm.

"Spock to sickbay," he said.

"McCoy here. What is it Spock?"

"Please report to Sileia's room. I have just discovered an unusual scar across her head and she is rather nauseas at the moment. I do not want to risk moving her."

"I'll be right there, Spock. McCoy out."

Spock looked over at Sileia and found himself getting the gut feeling that he was going to learn more than he would want to when he investigated this. Soon, the door hissed open and McCoy walked in and immediately brought out a hypo.

"Doctor," said Spock, placing a hand on his arm. "I believe that her nausea may be related to what you give her."

"Nonsense Spock, she hasn't thrown up yet and it's probably side effects from whatever she saw or had happen to her when she was down on that Trans-U –"

"She has thrown up, Doctor," interrupted Spock, looking at him with an air of resigned trust me, I know. McCoy seemed thrown off guard by this but soon regained his train of thought.

"Okay then, if I am to ascertain what is making her nauseas, I will have to take a sample of her vomit. Bt I'll deal with that later. Where is this scar?" asked McCoy, talking at a high speed. Spock gently moved her hair back and showed the thin white line to the doctor.

"What the hell?" he asked, confused. He kneeled by the bed and waved his scanner over her scalp. "Spock, this is only a third of the scar, the third that wasn't made invisible."

"Where would the other two thirds of it be?" asked Spock, hoping that his guess was wrong. McCoy traced a finger in a complete and even circle about his daughter's head. "They removed the top of her head?" McCoy nodded.

"That is what it would appear to be..." he waved his scanner even more and whistled softly and lowly. "It's deep too and there are evident marks of scarring in the scalp. They performed a complicated surgery in her brain and it's fairly recent...it's too perfect to be Reaver, Starfleet, or Romulan. This looks like some sort of Talosian telekinetic method. I'm picking up data readings that say that it was done within the last forty-eight hours." He looked up. "Her mind has been changed. There is no place left in her mind that isn't used, like the rest of us." He paused and added softly, "It all makes sense..."

"What, doctor?" asked Spock, looking down at his daughter's sleeping face.

"I did a series of tests on that sample of the vaccine Cartwright made. All I have figured out is that it attacks the brain. I found what parts of the brain it doesn't attack and it's everything we don't use. It turns on the rest of that brain and uses it to over power the person." He raised his eyebrows as he continued.

"Her brain is still operating completely, at 100%. She should have gone back to normal after she died before she transported up the first time, but she didn't. She is in control, with advances over us. With the rest of her mind used, there is no where for the vaccine to get a foothold and take over."

"She's immune?" asked Spock, still looking at her. McCoy nodded.

"That's why she's so unstable right now and nauseas. Her body is getting accustomed to having her whole brain used. The Talosians must have done this while she was in that prison. Maybe one of them skimped on their medication and managed to perform the surgery. Your daughter can't be killed or taken by that vaccine they threw into your side." McCoy paused. "I'll take a sample of that upheaved crap. Where is it?" Spock looked at him wearily.

"In my quarters on my bed." McCoy had to hurry out the door before he burst into helpless peals of laughter. Inside, Spock listened to McCoy nearly die outside from his human emotions. He shook his head. He foresaw a long talk with Saavik.

"No...no, won't go back!" screamed Sileia, sitting bolt upright. Immediately, Saavik was by her daughter's side, rubbing her back in smooth circular motions like Spock had. She was glad Spock had requested her to beam aboard to stay with Sileia: she needed it.

"Shh sweetheart," she whispered. "No one's taking you anywhere...You woke up just in time, too. We're home. We're at Vulcan. Before Cartwright." But Sileia wouldn't be placated as Saavik made her lay down.

"He's already here. He's already here," she moaned, hands on the sides of her head. "Screaming, burning, tearing!" She screamed piercingly. "Kho'mekh-il! Sa'mekh'al!" Horror overcame her features and she screamed once more, arching her back before falling unconscious.

"Kho'mekh-il...Sa'mekh'al...Amanda. Sarek!" Saavik rose and ran out of her daughter's room, yelling at ensigns to move as she flew down the halls. She ran into the turbolift to the bridge and waited impatiently for the doors to open. When they did, she froze in horror. The viewing screen was smeared with bloody hand prints and Amanda was lying limply in Kirk's arms as he finished beaming aboard.

"Oh my God," whispered Uhura, hand over her mouth. "Oh God, oh God, oh God." Everyone seemed to snap out of it and Sulu started to rise.

"Back to your station Mr. Sulu," said Kirk sharply.

"But keptain," protested Chekov as Sulu sat back down reluctantly.

"Remain at your stations," he ordered grimly. Spock rose quickly as Kirk settled her on her feet and he saw visible signs of abuse on her frail form.

"Yer safe now, Mrs. Sarek," said Scotty gently from Spock's side. She looked at the engineer and saw Spock. The change was instantaneous. She began trembling and backed away from her son towards the door. Saavik quickly stepped behind one of the glass panels, trying to hide.

"No...keep him away," she said shakily, pointing a trembling hand at Spock, "keep him away from me." The words seemed to hit Spock in the gut like a fist.

"Mother," he said softly, taking a half step towards her, "don't say that. It's me, Spock." She fled backwards and Kirk tried to stop her.

"You're not Spock," she whispered hoarsely, shrinking back into Kirk's body, her frail shape shivering like a leaf in a storm. Spock seemed dazed and took a half step back like he had been pushed, "stay away from me!" A close look would have shown that the Vulcan's eyes seemed a little glassy as he walked down to her, trying to placate her.

"Mother..." he said gently, grabbing her hand.

"Let go," she half-shouted. "Get away from me!" She tore her hand from Spock's and backed away. She was growing hysterical and shying away from everyone. But especially Spock, like he was the devil. The door hissed open and McCoy stepped in, stopping when he saw what was happening.

"Mother. Calm down."

"Get away!" she screamed and Spock tried again, stepping after her, trying to grab her hand.

"Mother, calm down!" She ripped her hands from him.

"I want my son," she sobbed, raising both hands to him in a silent plea. "What did you do with my son? My boy?"

"Mom...it's me," whispered Spock, growing desperate now too. "It's me, mom, please." He stepped up to her and grabbed both her hands before she could strike him. Panic flooded her eyes and she began struggling, trying to land a fist on her son's face, the whole while screaming,

"You're not Spock! You're not! You're not!" She suddenly broke off mid scream and slumped forward eyes open, but sightless. Spock caught her easily and knelt on the floor.

"Mother?" he whispered. "Please." McCoy waved his scanner over her and his expression grew ashen.

"Her brain's shutting down, Spock. I can't do anything. She's been too traumatized." Spock closed his eyes and willed it all to be nothing more than a bad dream. It wasn't. And it just got worse.

"Kho'mekh-il?" came the soft voice from the doorway. Sileia screamed and ran forth, grabbing her grandmother's hand. "Kho'mekh-il?!" She cried her soul out over Amanda before after one last scream, she fell silent, slumped over.

"Her – her brain activity is rising." Spock looked at his mother's face and back at Sileia. What the hell was happen–

"Sileia, don't!" Saavik grabbed her daughter and yanked her away, Sileia falling to the ground unconscious. McCoy took a scan of both and his eyebrows shot up.

"Thirty percent of her brain's turned off, Spock. And Amanda's pulling herself together again." He paused and took another scan. "It appears as if your daughter has transferred some of her brain's conscience or whatever you would call it, into your mother. She saved her life, Spock. But now, she's no longer immune."

"Spock?" whispered Amanda as she looked up at her son. Spock grabbed his mother's hand and held it close.

"Mother, who did this to you?" he whispered to her. She looked up and her eyes glistened with tears.

"He didn't mean it. I swear. He couldn't have been doing it willingly –"

"Who was it mother?" he repeated softly.

"It was...Sarek," she said, confused. "I came home from work and he...he attacked me. He was yelling and swinging his fists at me, a knife." Spock tightened his grip on his mother's hand and closed his eyes. It was worse than he had feared. "If Jim hadn't ran in the front door to get us out, he may have killed me." Spock looked up at his captain.

"Thank you Jim." Kirk nodded and put a hand on Spock's shoulder.

"They already got here then," said Sulu. "Mrs. Sarek was lucky to survive." Amanda sat up slowly in her son's arms and looked at the crew.

"What has happened to Vulcan?" Saavik looked down and back at her mother-in-law.

"It's complicated," she stated, sighing. Amanda looked at Spock and he nodded in conformation.

"It's complicated." Jim sighed and gestured for Bones to take her off the bridge.

"If you like, Lady Amanda, you can stay with your granddaughter in her quarters," the captain said as Spock helped her to her feet and steadied her. Amanda nodded then looked up.

"My granddaughter?" she asked. She tried to look around but her neck muscles tightened and she stopped. "Where is she?"

"Here, kho'mekh-il," she said, stepping forward and holding her grandmother's hand.

"Sileia?" she whispered and, as the child nodded, Amanda wrapped her arms around her and puled her in close. "Oh my sweet child." Sileia nodded into her Terran grandmother's shoulder and held her close. "Oh my god! Look at you! You're so grown up and beautiful..."

"Did everyone know about her except me?" asked Spock, genuinely annoyed. Amanda smiled at him.

"Yes, I'll stay with her."

With that, Sileia extracted herself from her tight embrace and led her out the door, McCoy behind her, scanning her for the extent of the abuse. His worried look over his shoulder told Spock and all those present that her troubles were far from over.


	14. Chapter 14

"How is she, doctor?" he asked, sitting in the briefing room with McCoy and Kirk.

"Well, Spock, she's been beat up pretty bad, but definitely not as bad as she would have had it been another Vulcan who had gotten to her first. I think Sarek knew what he was doing was wrong and he was trying to refrain from hurting her too badly."

"Just like Sileia fought back," commented Kirk. "She had no recollection of any of the murder she had committed, so she might have very well convinced her mind to shut down whatever memory she had of violence." McCoy nodded and made an "exactly" motion in his direction.

"When we cure Vulcan, they probably won't remember anything that they ever did in the madness. Which leads me to my second point." He brought up a chart on the screen in the room.

"This is a chart of a scan I had Scotty take while Amanda was recovering in sick bay." He sighed. "A tenth of a percent of the planet's population has been infected." Spock raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "That damned Admiral has a massive ship docked at the other end of the planet, hidden from our sensors."

"If they're hidden from our sensors, how do you know they are there?" asked Kirk, puzzled. McCoy shuffled his feet, a little awkwardly.

"Well, I took a shuttle craft and took it over the planet. I took a scan as I came around the planet and got a reading." he braced himself for Kirk's wrath, but there was no sound. He looked up at Jim and found the captain sitting there, a hand over his face: a face-palm.

"What in the name of everything that is sane in this seemingly _insane_ universe, were you thinking?!" he asked, looking up.

"We needed to know where they were and how much of the planet has been affected," began Bones and he stopped when he saw the look that Kirk was giving him. He decided to cut to the chase. "The tenth of a percent is all that is infected. Scotty managed to put a shield up so none of his crafts can get into the atmosphere. We've warned the rest of the people, so they are prepared to fight and defend themselves and their homes. Even if they are facing family or friends." McCoy paused.

"But that means that they are shooting or whatever-ing to kill," protested Kirk. Spock nodded.

"We have advised them to knock out and imprison, but it's turning into a bit of a hassle. But McCoy is investigating the syringe that contained the vaccine and is trying to isolate an antidote." As Spock finished speaking, Scotty came running in.

"All right, Mistar Spock, for whatever good it'll do ya, I've organized for the adjustments on the shuttles to start on yer order." Kirk blinked in surprise and confusion.

"What is going on here?" Spock looked at the captain and made a motion for Scotty to continue with his announcement.

"We're modifying the shuttle craft to be small gunner crafts. We can shut down the Admiral's men via air force." As he said that last sentence, he clasped his hands behind his back and rocked on his feet. He gave a large grin. "They won't know what happened when these girls hit 'em." Kirk nodded in appreciation of his engineer's enthusiasm.

"Okay, Scotty, but who gave you the go ahead on this operation?" asked Kirk, looking at Scotty eyebrow raised expectantly.

"Starfleet, sir." Kirk blinked. "And T'Pau of Vulcan." Again the stunned blink.

"Starfleet and...T'Pau gave you the go ahead on this," he said slowly.

"Aye, sir." Kirk nodded a few times, looking into space ahead of him in contemplative silence.

"Well then," he said, looking up at the three men before him. "Let's listen to our superiors and get this arial attack over with."

"I would like to take part in this," came a voice from the door way and Spock nearly face-palmed, himself. "I have a higher knowledge of these people and I know how to defeat them and lead people against them better than any one else here. I'll need more men than just those on the planet. I'd like to take the Talosians and the last of the Sinclairians with me to be my men." Kirk looked at Spock and saw that he wasn't going to let her.

"Feel free to, Sileia," said Kirk quickly, cutting off Spock's intake of breath to tell her no. "It seems you are the only logical choice. Especially with your enhanced capabilities." Spock gave him a look that McCoy recognized as the parental "I will kill you if she dies" look. Kirk shrugged after she left.

"She had a logical argument. Just like you usually do when you decide to go on fool missions," he said in his defense. Spock rose and walked out the door after his daughter.

"I know that you will not want me to go on this battle," said Sileia, without looking at him.

"No, I don't want you to. Do you realize what happens if you get caught?"

"Then I'll go back with them and destroy their ship in space," she turned on him. "But if you think I will condemn my whole planet, your whole planet, our whole planet, on the account of my safety, then you don't know me at all."

Spock stopped walking and watched her continue on down the hall to the turbo lift. She entered, turned to face him, and Spock knew then that he had no chance with changing her mind.

Down in the passenger deck, Sileia looked around at the people that they had saved from the acts of Cartwright. She knew that their lives had been uprooted, destroyed and that they wouldn't want to do this. They were ready to live normal lives again, but she needed them to stand by her one last time. Silence fell over the massive room and they all looked at her expectantly as the mothers shooed the children into the adjoining rooms. Eric stayed behind.

"We were waiting for you to come to us, Sileia," said one of the older Talosians. She tilted her head at an angle that said she didn't comprehend what he meant. "We've discussed what must be done among the rest of us," he gestured at the whole crowd, Talosians and Sinclairians alike. "And we are ready to fight with you." She smiled at their determined expressions, but her heart broke when Eric called out.

"I wanna fight, too." His mother placed a hand on his shoulder. "If everyone else is fightin', I will too. They took me dad and me brother Chris. I ain't got nothin' left to live for except my mum. And if she's off to fight for you, I am too." Sileia nodded. She looked at her rag tag troop of men and women. She nodded. She walked over to the replicator and ripped it open, fiddling around with the wires and reattaching them to other wires. After thirty minutes of silence and fiddling and changing the engineering, she closed the door and entered something. She opened it and pulled out an arsenal of phasers, hand guns, slings, and bows and arrows. She turned to face the waiting men and women.

"We might just be able to pull this off."

About fifty minutes later, they were all walking down the halls, armed and ready for the transporter room. Spock watched his daughter leading the group and was reminded that his daughter was no longer a little girl. Well, she was physically, but she was far above and beyond her years mentally. She looked at him as she walked by him and he nodded to her once. She looked back ahead and they entered the transporter room. Everyone in the hallway listened to the wine of the transporter for about five minutes. Then, all was silent.

Sileia and the others that she had beamed down with hid behind the wall in the Vulcan city. She knew that they had set her down in the middle of the infected area. Everyone around her she couldn't trust. And she had to remind herself that these people couldn't change themselves like she had because the vaccine had been improved. These people were slaves to the will of Cartwright. Then, there was a loud series of yells and howls.

"Reavers." She saw the young boy Eric cringe and then straighten. He was angry and she could tell easily from his thoughts that he was projecting. She shook herself. She shouldn't do that. She shouldn't be listening to what people think. The frightening yells and screams drew nearer and the ten Reavers that were creating all of the noise ran in their ape-like way across the road. As they were half way by, Sileia gripped her sword tightly and threw herself into their midst. The Talosians and Sinclairians watched in awed horror as she swung, ducked, and kicked, landing every single one on their backs were they would never move again. She turned to look at them, barely breathing hard or sweating.

"We need to work on that," she commented, pointing to the fact that they were still hidden in the alleyway. "When I jump someone, that usually means that you come out to back me up. I'm not invincible, you know. I can be killed. And I can be defeated in battle if there are enough people."

The people looked down. They knew that they should have helped, but they had been too awed by her power. She nodded, seeing what was going through their heads.

"Okay, fine. The next time we see some one coming, we'll fire from a distance so I don't awe you into inaction." She gave a grim smile and crept from the alleyway, the people following her. She looked at her scanner and could tell that there was a crowd, a whole building of sane Vulcans before her. She ran across the street and the others followed her.

"Hello!" she shouted from the door. "We're here to help! We came from the _Enterprise_!" The door opened slightly and a scared face appeared in the crack. "You have to trust us. We're here to help." The woman behind the door looked at the bloody sword in her hand and at the fallen Reavers. The door opened quickly and they all slipped in, until all fifty of them were crammed into the entrance to the massive house. About fifty more Vulcans came down the steps cautiously. Sileia looked up at them and saw with a pang of sorrow who the house belong to. She walked up the steps and knelt before the two adults who were at the head of the procession down the stairs.

"I am sorry, Mother, Father. I have failed your son," she looked up teary eyed at Tirang's parents and her father-in-law placed a hand on her head.

"Were you with him when he passed?" he asked, his deep voice vibrating the air between them. Sileia shook her head.

"I had just been thrown across the room. I tried to get back to him but..." she bowed her head again and whispered, "I'm sorry. But I've come to avenge him and all the other lives that Cartwright has destroyed. I'm here, we're here, to end this damned operation."

"What happened to us? To our neighbors?" asked her mother-in-law, looking down at her.

"They have infected you with a vaccine that turns on the rest of our brains, using that power to overthrow ourselves in our own minds and turn our bodies and strengths over to ex-Admiral Cartwright so he can use us to take over the universe with the Reavers. Both I and your son were tested on. We both survived, but...they took his life later on. We were also given a test formula. Apparently, they refined it and made it irrevocable in it's permanence." She rose. "But we have the science labs onboard the starship working on finding an antidote." She looked at them.

"You have to fight to survive, and there's nothing you can do to avoid that. You have to kill the Reavers. And I'm here to lead you. My mind was cut into, changed, so that I use my whole brain. I gave a third of it's power to my Grandmother Amanda so that she would be spared. I'm superior now and know their weaknesses. Please let me lead you into battle against them. Please help me shut him down." They looked at them, but before they could answer her proposal, the world exploded.

The Reavers came pouring in through the hole they had blown in the wall and soon everyone was being overrun. Swords rose and fell, and soon, a majority of the Talosians lay dead. She knew that they weren't fighting men, but the others were. Soon, with her help here and there, the Reavers were dead, and the alarm had been spread throughout the house.

"We accept your offer."

"I was going to make a comment stating that it would be wise to accept it," commented Sileia.

They followed her out of the house, and they went from home to home gathering and recruiting the sane Vulcans. But soon, time and numbers began to turn against them. Somehow, Cartwright had managed to slip more Reavers onto the planet's surface. One by one, two by two, their dead increased, until only two Talosians, fifteen Sinclairians and forty Vulcans were left. She led the exhausted group to a fallen archway. The insane Vulcans had decided to join forces with the Reavers and Cartwright had joined the fray, leading them in more calculated attacks. The homes of the refugee Vulcans and people who had been visiting the planet who were still sane went up in flames.

The loud howls of hunger and the terrified screams of the people shook the small group hiding in the corner to their core. Only one girl among them was brave and strong. She looked around her failing world and saw the savages and ex-Vulcans raiding the city. Another mutilated man fell near them and a few of the people screamed. They had fought long and hard and they hadn't done nothing. They had put many people out of commission, but she knew that they probably wouldn't make it back to the ships if Spock didn't get those shuttle craft working. The girl turned to them.

"Just focus! The Admiral and his men said they were gonna waltz through T'Paal. And we choked 'em with those words," Sileia paused to push her hair out of her eyes. Sileia posed a very imposing figure with her grime and blood streaked face, frazzled hair, determined expression. She looked at every single stone cold Vulcan, Talosian, and Sinclairian around her and tried to inspire them.

"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty. Just a little while longer. Our angels are gonna be soaring overhead, raining fire on those arrogant khags. So you hold." She looked at them and when she saw their fear and hesitance, she shouted. "You hold! Go!"

The remaining Vulcans and survivors from Cartwright's mad plan rose from their hiding position and raised the bows, guns, phasers, and Eric pulled back his sling. They looked at Sileia once and she led the attack firing once upon the group of Reavers that were running blindly, screaming. Vulcan aim was deadly and none of the Reavers moved again. Sileia squinted at the sky. She could only hope that Scotty was going to be done with the adjustments on the shuttle craft soon. They needed that air support. She tilted her head as she heard a high pitched whining sound. Then, the air around them exploded.


	15. Chapter 15

Meanwhile on the _Enterprise, _Scotty was in a fever of work in the Engineering section with Spock and the other engineers. The repairs and adjustments on the shuttle craft were almost done, and soon the _Enterprise _would be sending down their own little space craft to shut down the Reavers and Cartwright. But then, McCoy ran into Engineering and everyone stopped and stared.

Since when did McCoy come down to Engineering?

"Spock, I isolated the trigger chemical that makes them go mad." Spock nodded twice before going back to work.

"And how do you propose we reverse that?" he asked, looking over his shoulder. McCoy hesitated before plunging headfirst into his already executed plan.

"Well, I injected Saavik with the rest of it and –"

"WHAT?!" The effect was instantaneous and soon, McCoy was backed against a wall with Spock looking at him like he was going to kill him. In fact, he probably would have been dead if Scotty hadn't grabbed Spock's arms and held him back.

"Let the doctor say what he did completely Mistar Spock," muttered Scotty, slowly releasing the Vulcan. "Before ye bash his brains in." Spock took a deep breath.

"You did what?" Somehow his calm response after that explosive "WHAT?!" was more frightening.

"I injected her with it. It was –"

"My choice, Spock." Spock looked at the door and saw Saavik standing there, perfectly fine and sane. "So don't kill Doctor McCoy." Spock looked between his wife and the doctor and finally asked the next logical question.

"How did you reverse it?"

"Extreme dosage of a sedative. Enough to kill a normal human. That killed the rest of the brain's activity, because the rest of the brain is based off of a savage human. So all you need to do is inject the people of Vulcan with this heavy sedative." Spock looked at the doctor like he had forgotten something rather important.

"Doctor, a fifth of the planet is infected. And they hit the most populated part. How do you suppose we get all those people uninfected again?"

"I don't know, Scotty's the engineer here! Not me!" Scotty raised his eyebrow, clasped his hands behind his back and began rocking on his feet.

"I could make gas bombs, but that would take a while. And we'd be knockin out e'erybody in the area."

"Better than condemning the planet to insanity," said Saavik walking into the room from her position at the door. "Please, Scotty. Do it. Coordinate with Doctor McCoy to get the sedative into a gas form that is still potent."

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer!" Saavik looked at him and delivered the classic line.

"You are now."

Spock walked out of the room after saying to Scotty, "And Mr. Scott, Vulcan doesn't have a while. You need to finish that as soon as possible."

Back on the planet's surface, the group of rebels was laying still on the ground, the dark, smoking smudge that had been a phaser on overload lying twenty yards from them on the ground. It was said that the force of one of those was enough to damage a whole deck of a starship. Sileia now knew that that was not an understatement. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a dark face above hers.

"Did you really think that you could fight me? Go against me?" hissed Mohinder. "You couldn't possibly defeat me you little bitch." She scowled at him and spat in his face, causing him to swear and lean away from her. She rolled to her feet and kicked him in the stomach. He doubled over and flew backwards as she kicked his chin really hard, knocking him out cold. She raised her phaser and pointed it at him.

"You've crossed me for the last time," she whispered, about to pull the trigger. Then, a Reaver bowled into her and knocked her to the ground. She tried to aim a phaser into his stomach, but he knocked it away and she saw the flash of his ugly face before her neck erupted in pain. She arched her back and screamed as his teeth sank into the side of her neck, clamping down tight and drawing blood. Then, the Reaver threw back his head and screamed as a knife was driven into his back.

She shoved him off and tore the hem of her uniform thing off, tying it around her neck to stop the blood flow. She looked up and saw a boy standing there, a young Vulcan who's eyes were blank and open. He dropped the knife and grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. Then, he delivered a quick punch to the side of her head and she knew then that this was one of the lost ones. She knew what she had to do and she loathed it. She swung a hand into the back of his neck, performing the Tal-Shaya. The boy crumpled and before her eyes, she saw his eyes regain their clearness and she knew that he was free now. Free wherever he was in the afterlife.

She turned back to Mohinder, aimed for his head, and fired. She was trembling with adrenaline.

"It was the right thing to do, you know." Sileia turned to look at Tirang's father, Sulvok. "No Vulcan deserves to live a life like the one he was. You did the right thing ending him." She looked down at her hands and sat down behind the arch, dizzy and head ringing. She looked at Sulvok.

"Look at these hands, Sulvok. These are the hands of a murderer. How many lives have they claimed? Dozens? Hundreds?" She looked down and felt tears filling her eyes.

"You did what was right, what you needed to do, Sileia. No one will ever condemn you for what you did to save yourself, my son, or anyone else," he reassured her.

"But I'm a Vulcan. And Vulcans do not kill. I've broken every one of our laws. Look at these hands and tell me if I will ever be able to live this down. I will go down in our history as the girl who was abducted, who was too weak to control her own mind, who was a murderer. A homicidal." She dropped her head in her hands. "The girl who failed." Sulvok lowered himself to sit beside her.

"Look at the great icons of our society, Sileia. Take Spock for instance. He was cast down, cast out by everyone, even Sarek, his own father. The only one who believed in him from the beginning was his mother. She saw the good in him, the potential. She raised him up to become one of the best Vulcans our world has ever seen. All he did was persevere and believe in himself. He was disdained by us, called the half-breed. But now, any one who calls him a half-breed in front of a Vulcan is basically screwed. You need to do the same. If you give up now, you will forever be remembered as the girl who failed. But if you die for us, if you succeed, you will be remembered like Spock. The Vulcan who was a hero and an icon for us." Sileia nodded.

"Funny you should choose Spock as an example," she mused. Sulvok looked at her puzzled.

"And why is that?" She sighed.

"I guess as your daughter-in-law, I should let you know." She looked at him by tilting her head and looking in his direction. Then, she said with utmost seriousness, "Spock's my dad." Silence, then the one word that made Sileia want to cry and laugh at the same time.

"Fascinating." He looked at her conflicted reaction and added, "It seems as though being the rising underdog runs in your family." She pressed herself against the stone as she listened to the screeches of more Reavers. She closed her eyes briefly and opened them to look at Sulvok. He nodded at her reassuringly and she closed her eyes tightly, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes as she prepared herself.

"All right, Mistar Spock. It's time to launch them. Do ye have the seven pilots?" Spock looked at the engineer as he walked down the hall to the hanger bay.

"Myself, Mister Kyle, Mr. Sulu, Vanessa a Vulcan onboard the _Excalibur_, the weapons master on the _Excalibur_ Miss Jolene, Mr. Chin the engineer on board the _Excalibur_ and Mr. Thompson, the strategist onboard the _Enterprise_."

"Do ye think it's wise to let the strategist go at this point, Mistar Spock?"

"Unless you would like to deny a volunteer, Mr. Scott, you will let him go," said Spock, continuing on his brisk pace.

" 'E volunteered?!" said Scotty, stopping in his tracks before hurrying to catch up with the fast moving Vulcan. "Tha's one mad strategist," he sighed. They entered the hanger bay and they each climbed into their respective shuttles. Scotty noticed with slight misgivings that Spock had chosen the _Galileo 8_, the replacement for the _Galileo 7_ that had been lost under the Vulcan's command. Spock noticed his look and bent low in the doorway so that he could talk to the engineer.

"How long has Sileia been down on the planet?"

"About...fifty minutes, sir. I don't think there's much chance of them surviving this long." Spock looked at him.

"I know. All we can hope to do now is finish what she started." Scotty watched as he climbed into the shuttle and one of his engineer workers came and told him that it was time for them to depart. Scotty raised his hand in farewell to the Vulcan and he swore he saw Spock mimic the action. Together, the two men left the pad and the hanger bay opened. The seven shuttles left the ship's safety and shot down to the planet below them.

"He'll be okay, Mr. Scott," came a blessedly sweet voice. "He's never failed to return from a mission yet and when he does return nearly gone, that kind nurse always patches him up with the help of the good doctor." Scotty smiled at Amanda and held the elderly lady's hand.

"I don' know Lady Amanda. Spock and the _Enterprise _have never encountered anythin' like this before. I can only hope they come back." His troubled look seemed to be quite obvious because Amanda gently pulled on his hand.

"What is it, Mr. Scott. I know that look. I'm a diplomat, remember?" Scotty looked at her and pulled her aside so that she could sit on one of the benches beside him.

"Mrs. Sarek," he began. "Did Spock ever tell you about the _Galileo 7_ incident?" Amanda shook her head. "Well, we was assigned to examine a phenomena and we was on a tight schedule. So, Spock, myself, Mr. Bona, McCoy, two other men, and a young lady went to investigate. Spock was in command and...well things didn't go according to plan. We were pulled into the center of the phenomena and stranded on a hostile planet. We tried everythin' we could to get her off the ground while we were being attacked by the giant locals. Eventually, with the loss of two of our men and the near loss of Spock, we managed to get on board. Spock had a broken leg from the boulder they threw at him, but he still insisted on piloting. He took us up into the atmosphere and played a huge gamble that just nearly got us killed. But it was the right one, and the _Enterprise _beamed us on board just in time."

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked, frightened for the chance her son had taken.

"Because your son just took out the _Galileo 8._ I might be wrong, but I don't think Spock's planning on making an easy return. Or a return at all." He patted her hand once before leaving the elder to her thoughts. Amanda rose and walked silently through the halls, drawing pitying looks. She knew everyone on the ship felt sorry for her. She looked down at her sprained wrist where she had tried to stop Sarek from attacking her. Then, she looked back up and smiled at a few people she passed.

She wasn't a diplomat for nothing. She could fake. Soon, she let her feet guide her to the observation deck where she watched Vulcan below the _Enterprise_. The once so orderly and logical planet was chaotic and disaster-struck. She bowed her head and stood there, continuing to feel that sense of emptiness deep in her.

"Hello, ma'am," said a voice with a thick Irish accent. "You seem a little...ah...down and out, miss." He was going to kill his crew mates who were paying him a hundred credits to do this and not have the kind woman run away screaming.

"Hello, Riley," she said, smiling. "Yes, I – I was just reflecting on everything that has happened." Riley nodded.

"Well, I have something that might take your mind off things," he offered slightly embarrassed.

"Okay," she said turning to the young ensign. "What is it?"

"Um," he cleared his throat and said awkwardly, "I can sing? Irish folk songs." She smiled and her whole demeanor seemed to brighten.

"What song?" she asked, genuine curiosity filling her voice. "Go on, sing." Under her encouraging smile, Riley began singing the song that made everyone cringe.

"_I'll take you home again...Kathleen,_" he sang and Amanda's smile broke to an even wider grin.

"_Across the ocean wild and wide to where your heart has ever been since you were first my bonnie bride. The roses all have left your cheek. I've watched them fade away and die. Your voice is sad when e'er you speak and tears bedim your loving eyes._" He took a breath._ "Oh! I will take you back, Kathleen to where your heart will feel no pain And when the fields are fresh and green. I'II take you to your home again!" _Amanda laughed in glee and clapped for him.

"Do you know the second verse, Mister Riley?" Riley ducked his head.

"No, Ma'am." Amanda smiled. "I only know the first and last."

"Then here, let me teach you." She began to sing the next part. "_I know you love me, Kathleen, dear. Your heart was ever fond and true. I always feel when you are near that life holds nothing, dear, but you. The smiles that once you gave to me I scarcely ever see them now Though many, many times I see. A dark'ning shadow on your brow_." Soon, the two of them were singing the rest of the song, and Scotty listened from his hiding place, communicator open, broadcasting the whole episode to some one.

On board the _Galileo 8_, Spock listened to his mother's laugh as her beautiful voice mixed with the drawling, off-tune one of Riley. Despite himself, a sad smile played at the corners of his mouth.

"Scotty," he said into the communicator. "Tell Riley thank you for me. Thank him for making my mother laugh. It's the first time she has since...since Vulcan."

"Sure thing Mr. Spock."

"_To that dear home beyond the sea my Kathleen shall again return. And when thy old friends welcome thee thy loving heart will cease to yearn. Where laughs the little silver stream beside your mother's humble cot and brightest rays of sunshine gleam there all your grief will be forgot_..."

Spock ended the communication line. He was entering the atmosphere.

"Entering the atmosphere," came the voice of Miss Jolene. She had a sort of western accent to her voice. "Comin' in right behind you."

"Entering atmo at thirty degrees to your right Mister Spock," came Kyle with his accented voice. Then, Vanessa.

"Penetrating the atmosphere at thirty point four degrees to the left of you Mr. Spock."

"Approaching you at twenty degrees, Mr. Spock," said Mr. Thompson. Spock nodded to himself.

"Approaching on your right, Mr. Spock, exactly opposite Mr. Thompson," said Chin.

"Advancing above you Spock," said Sulu and Spock leaned forward to see the underbelly of Sulu's craft.

"Thank you Mr. Sulu. Acknowledged all." Spock looked over his charts. "We'll be heading for the major Vulcan city T'Paal. That's where the majority of the fighting will be. Mr. Sulu, you'll follow me. Vanessa, you know the area, so you'll lead the others around and clean up the outlying areas."

"Yes, sir, Mr Spock," said Vanessa. Spock opened his mouth to give Sulu his order, but Vanessa continued, giving a private broadcast. "Be careful Mr Spock." He looked out the screen ahead of him and saw Vanessa break away with Kyle, Thompson, Chin, and Jolene. He knew she was a good leader and that would serve them well in their task.

"Why did you ask me to stay behind, Mr. Spock? Why not the strategist or someone?" Spock flipped a few switches before guiding the craft down and answering.

"I've known you the longest and I trust you to keep your head. You were the logical choice." There was silence on the other line.

"Well...thanks for that," came Sulu slightly puzzled. "You know what? I think that that is the first comment you have ever paid any one." Spock raised his eyebrow before saying his next command.

"Descend above the planet at a thirty degree angle. At my order, release the anti-toxin." They approached the surface and Spock's already sober expression grew darker as he saw the surface of the planet and it's condition. Buildings were sabotaged and pillars had been ripped down.

Surprisingly, the statue of Surak was still standing, a sort of ironic symbol of the prestige and order that had once ruled the Vulcan race. But at the base of that statue, a pile of bodies was being made. His sharp eyes could pick out the mutilated forms and he could tell that they were Reavers who were throwing the bodies together.

"Mr. Spock? Are you seeing this?" asked Sulu, his voice rough.

"Yes, Mr. Sulu, I am," he said grimly, eyes fixed on the pile of dead that was growing at the feet of the Vulcan icon.

"Well, aren't you going to do something about her?" came Sulu's aggravated voice. "Or would you rather her take on that whole army?" Spock immediately looked at the communications console and reopened a connection to Sulu.

"Who are you talking about, Mr. Sulu?"

"Your _daughter_! Who did you think I was taking about?" Spock immediately opened scanners and pin pointed the girl. When he did, he leaned forward.

"What the – t'ahm t'Surak! Sulu, remain in your current position. On my signal, pilot her down and gas them."

"Where are you going?" called Sulu into the communicator as Spock lowered the craft. "Spock, you insane Vulcan!"

The man currently hearing that transmission looked down at the one small girl. He knew she could probably win in the fight against all of them, but he couldn't take the chance. Careful to not notify the Reavers of his approach, he leveled the _Galileo 8 _out and aimed for just above Sileia's head. He had better not miss.

Sileia looked at the Reavers before her and looked briefly back at the bodies strewn across the ground behind her. None of the humans or Talosians had woken after the phaser on overload had gone off. She and Sulvok had been alone, and he did not have her abilities, enhanced or otherwise. Now, he was on the ground behind her, bleeding from a rather severe wound to his back. She watched as they approached, a massive group that was larger than any she had taken on before. She pulled out her communicator.

"Sileia to _Enterprise_," she called, her voice tired and resigned.

"Uhura here. Are you okay, Sileia? We read dozens of Reavers near you. We can beam you up if you like."

"I know. I can see them. Open me a channel to the _Excalibur_." There was silence and she added, "Please, Nyota. I don't have all day."

"_Excalibur_, what is it, _Enterprise_?" Sileia sighed as she heard her mother's voice.

"Ko-mekh," she said, blinking rapidly. "I love you. I love you so much."

"Sileia?" the formality that came with Saavik's ship's captain mode fell away. "Sileia, where are you? Are you okay?"

"Na' ma'toi temep-sharu, ko-mekh," she whispered. "I love you." She ignored her mother's voice and broke the lid off of the communicator. She would let her mother hear her last battle. It was the Romulan thing to do.

She let the communicator fall from her hand and she looked at the Reavers. They started off with a slow jog and eventually built up sped to a run. She reluctantly pulled a rusty and fragmented halberd from it's place in the ground. She didn't want to do it again, but life seemed to give her no choice. She took a deep breath and let the madness fill her. When she opened her eyes she was calculating distances, thrust, optimum angles and leverage and positions.

When the first few arrived before her, they fell to the ground, axe head and spear pike crashing into the occipital area of their heads. She turned back to the rest and she saw them stop and stare at her in fear. She lunged forward and swiped with the halberd, hissing at them. They turned and ran and Sileia straightened, just in time to feel the metal of the underbelly of a shuttle craft brush the top of her head. She looked up in time to recognize the _Galileo 8._

D_amn, that had been close_, she thought.

Unbeknownst to her, Spock was on board nearly hitting himself in the head, saying the exact same thing.

She watched in satisfaction as the phasers destroyed nearly all of the Reavers who had been about to attack her. She was glad that Scotty was such an engineering genius. Then, she remembered Sulvok and the others. When she turned around, she saw the Sinclairians moving over along with the other Vulcans. None of the Talosians seemed to be alive.

"Are they gone?" asked Eric, and Sileia raised an eyebrow. He was still alive. She walked over to them and knelt by him. She looked up at them and gave a grim smile.

"What did I tell you? Just a little longer and our angels would come soaring over head, raining fire on those arrogant khags. And look who's here." She pointed to the sky and they smiled in spite of themselves. The seven shuttlecraft soared close to the ground by them, dropping a white fume after them.

"They – they made it...did they?" came a shaky voice and Sileia sat beside Sulvok.

"They made it. And you did well." She immediately pressed him down when he tried to sit up. "Shh...Bolau tu shom." Sulvok nodded and winced as she moved him into her lap so she could apply pressure to the wound.

"I go to my son now. And my wife." Sileia looked down at him and her expression was grave, the bedside manner that Spock displayed when McCoy had been dying at the hands of the Talosians with Gem.

"You'll make it. Just hang on." Sulvok shook his head and looked up at her.

"Kup-fun-tor ha'kiv na'ish du stau?" he whispered. Sileia nodded in acknowledgment of the saying of Surak. Can you give life to what you kill? He placed his bloody hand over hers and he added, "I'll tell Tirang everything." Sileia nodded.

"Dif-tor heh smusma," she whispered, sliding his eyelids closed after the light had finally left them. The Sinclairians bowed their heads and the ones that had hats took them off and looked down at the body of her father-in-law. She looked up in time to see some of the others around her passing out as the white substance hit them. She rose and began walking in the city, the antidote creating a sort of fog along the ground. She looked at the people scattered around her in the dying sunlight of her home. She knows that there is something wrong, but her mind couldn't figure it out.

She looked around at the deepening fuzziness and blurred environment. Maybe it was whatever that gas the shuttle crafts had released. She looked into the alley way beside her and saw a form stumbling there, trying to get to her. She stopped and stared, shocked at the change that had been taken on his body. It had only been a few weeks, but he looked like hell now.

"Sa'mekh'al," she murmured, half running, half tripping over herself to get to him. Sarek moaned and fell to the ground before Sileia could get to him. She looked around at the spinning world and was about to crumple to the ground before she gathered her last burst of energy to limp to her grandfather's side. She collapsed and fell unconscious as the sedative took its toll.


	16. Chapter 16

"Is she okay?"

"Damn it, Jim, you're just as bad as Spock and his family! Can't you just ask them how she's doing? Each of them have already been in here fifty times! And for heaven's sake, you'd think she's on her death bed, the way you are all hanging around her!"

It took all of Sileia's mental controls to not burst out in either laughter or a sigh of annoyance. The sound of McCoy yelling was not what you wanted to wake up to.

"Well, look who's come back from the ball. Morning, sleeping beauty." Sileia cracked an eye open.

"It is illogical to use the phrase back from the ball because what happened down on Vulcan was anything but a ball," she paused to draw breath and cut off McCoy's protest. "Further more, the use of the term Morning Sleeping Beauty is also illogical seeing as it is not morning, I was knocked out by your sedative and not in a natural state of sleep and I as sure as Surak's statue is still standing look like I've been to, through, and back from hell." Silence.

"Well, that has to be a new record, eh Bones?" laughed Kirk. "Your patient wakes up and sets you back on your haunches in ten seconds flat before you can say anything in your own defense."

"Shut up Jim. She's just like her father and therefore lucky I'm not hypoing her into the middle of next week!"

Sileia smiled and sat up in her bed. All around her, she saw the faces of Vulcans and humans. She seemed a bit overwhelmed, but her day brightened considerably when she saw Eric sitting there smiling at her, hands and arm in bandages.

"I got em good didn't I Aislinn?" Sileia smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Yes, Eric. You got em good."

"You were the one in the...the place weren't you? The one that got back at them for Chris?"

"Yes, itsk-veh." She sighed and sat back on the bed, looking at the ceiling. "That was me." Spock whispered something to McCoy and he announced rather loudly

"All right everybody, let the Vulcans have their little private time!" He and Christine herded the crowd out of the room and her family closed in around her, trying to touch her hands and shoulders in an effort to comfort her. Sileia looked at her father with utmost seriousness, and a glint of humor.

"You almost hit me with the shuttlecraft, father." Spock winced and Saavik turned on him.

"You almost did what?!" she hissed. "Are you telling me that you nearly hit our child with a shuttlecraft?!" Spock eyed her wearily and decided to get back at her.

"Are you telling me that you infected yourself with a chemical that could turn you into a savage beast that would kill this whole ship and no one would be able stop you?"

"You infected yourself?" This came from Sarek. "I nearly killed my wife. I couldn't stop it, and imagine what would happen if you were given free run of the ship?"

"Hey!" shouted Sileia and the escalating argument fell silent. "Thank you." She gave them a look that told them that she was not in the mood for an argument. Immediately, they grew apologetic and then Sileia noticed who was missing.

"Where is kho'mekh-il?" she asked. Then, the door slid open and Amanda came running in, her hand wrapped in bandages.

"I'm so sorry it took so long! I only just found out that she was awake," she panted and hurried over to her granddaughter's side. "How are you feeling Ha'su?" Sileia smiled.

"I'm as well as can be expected in my situation." She looked up at Spock. "How long was I out?"

"You were out for approximately thirty point four minutes. That is excluding the time spent from when I found you and Sarek, got you both into the shuttle, took you to the _Enterprise_, pressurized the hanger bay, and –"

"I think she gets the point, T'hyla," whispered Saavik, laying a hand on her husband's arm. Sileia smiled ever so slightly and Amanda beamed.

"She's farther along than any of you stoic Vulcans!" She looked at Sarek's puzzled expression and the mirrored emotion on the faces of her son and his bond mate. "None of you have learned to smile yet!" Saavik raised an eyebrow.

"Smiling is a human emotion which I do not have. If anything, Spock should have learned to smile by now seeing as he has served aboard a human ship and is half-human." Spock raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms. "I, however, have been on Vulcan this whole time, teaching and raising her."

"I see no reason to assume that I should have learned to smile. My father should be smiling now since he has been married to a human. He is also the ambassador for Earth." Now, it was Sarek's turn to puff up in indignation.

She loved her family for being who they were, the misfit family with the only sane one Sarek. Well, he was at fault too for marrying a human. So they were all misfits. Sileia smiled and closed her eyes, letting herself drift asleep (with the help of McCoy's hypo), listening to the sound of her family arguing about the importance of smiling in one's life. Yep. This was her family.

When she woke up, it was dark and she was alone in her quarters. Spock or one of her family members must have moved her from sickbay. She breathed deeply and thought she saw faces dimly outlined in the shadows cast by a Vulcan lamp in her room. She blinked a few times and noticed a box by the side of her bed. She sat up and read the note on the top.

"You forgot something." She didn't recognize the handwriting but she opened it anyway. It was filled with locks of bloody hair, parts of bodies, eyes, hands, and she felt nausea rising up in her.

She screamed and sat bolt upright in her bed in sickbay. A nightmare. Nothing more, nothing less. She took several deep breaths and pressed her hands to her face, nearly sobbing. She knew what that dream meant. This wasn't over not now, not ever. Not as long as Cartwright and that massive Reaver ship were still free.

"Sileia, sweet heart?" came a sleepy voice from one of the adjoining rooms. Christine walked in, her hair disheveled, implying that she had just been woken up. "Are you okay?" Sileia shook her head and drew her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around herself.

"They came back. Coming and coming, never stopping." Christine made a soft noise of sympathy and sat on the bed beside her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she whispered. Sileia shook her head. _Too grotesque. Don't want to frighten._ She thought, willing the thoughts to go to Christine's mind. "Oh...it's okay. I'm a nurse, remember? And I take care of _your _family, so I've seen some pretty bad things." Sileia shook her head again.

"Not over yet. Nightmare." She tried to get up, but Christine held her down.

"Now don't you dare get up and walk out on me. You're just as bad as your father when it comes to staying in sickbay." Sileia looked at her. Something seemed different. She seemed to be half awake and her eyes were wider than usual. Christine was starting to panic.

"Okay, Sileia, I'm going to call in your father or your grandparents." Sileia's strange half awake look faded and she tilted her head, gazing at the ceiling with that wide eyed stare that seemed to see more than the normal eye. She shook her head slowly as Christine called Spock on the intercom system. Her voice trailed off as she saw her medical charge's reaction.

"Doesn't matter," she whispered. She looked down at Christine. "They're here."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Who's here?"

"They come and come, and they won't stop until they get what they came for..." Christine sighed frustrated and said in mixed annoyance and defeat,

"Oh, shit." Simultaneously, the red alert klaxon went off and Sileia dashed from the room. This routine was starting to look very familiar.

"Sileia, where on earth do ye think ye're headed?" Sileia turned to Scotty and she had that same strange look on her face. A slight frown creased his forehead.

"Won't stop. Won't ever stop. They'll just keep coming until they get back what you took." Scotty put his arm around her shoulders.

"Don't ye think you should be in sickbay lass?" Sileia smiled slightly and put her arm around him in turn.

"Just going for a walk. Voices in there talk to me. Tell me what to do, what to think..." she shook her head and suddenly ground her heels into the ground.

"Won't go back. Won't!"

"Shh, lass. No one in there's goin' to hurt ya." Sileia looked at him, her eyes wide and knowing.

"That's what they said too. But they lied." Before Scotty could comfort her, she leaned forward and brought her foot into the back of the engineer's head. He fell to the ground and she looked at him once before she turned and ran to the transporter room. The door was locked, probably as a precaution for her. She looked around herself before staring back at the control panel.

Just as she vanished in the beam, Spock walked around the corner, seeing Scotty on the ground with Christine beside him and a very disgruntled Doctor McCoy who appeared to have just been woken up from a deep sleep. His mind put together the pieces and he hurried over to the transporter room, which was right around the corner.

"Damn, insane shrimp! Get her back over here!" yelled McCoy angrily. "I swear I am going to strap her into bed next time."

"I doubt even restraints would hold her back," said Spock looking at the lock and control panel on the transporter room door. It had been smashed and torn from the wall, wires rewired and messed up. "She's no longer on the ship."

"Go to red alert, I repeat, go to red alert." Saavik rose and walked to the science station, resetting the controls so that she could set up everything for the attack of Reavers.

The grotesque ship was turning about to face them, and the radiation readings were escalating, indicating the preparation for an increase in speed. This only happened when they were getting ready to go faster. She wished she didn't know as much about these people as she did, but at the same time, she was glad.

"I don't understand," said one of the younger ensigns. "What is that thing?"

"You ever heard of Reavers?" she asked turning on her sharply. She shook her head, slightly afraid of the look in her captain's eyes. She decided to say what she knew.

"Fire side stories of men gone savage on the outskirts of space, killing and –"

"They're not stories," interrupted Saavik and looked at her seriously. "If they board us, they will rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothes. And if we're very, _very _lucky, they'll do it in that order." Those in ear shot, which was the whole bridge, looked at her in fear.

"Some incentive to keep them on their hell bound vessel," said Jolene from her post at the main console. Saavik nodded at her.

"Thank you. That is exactly what it is. Incentive to keep us out of their magnetic grapple. Can you do that, helmsman?" Vanessa looked around at her captain.

"Yes, Captain. I can do that." Just as she turned around, the magnetic grapple shot forward and the _Excalibur _took a hard and high bank to the left, the powerful magnet yanking them back before she broke free. On the bridge, everyone was righting themselves and getting back in their seats, Saavik approaching from the far side of the deck where she had been thrown.

"Work well done, Vanessa." Vanessa nodded tensely, her eyes trained on the alien vessel.

"I was simply performing my task, captain."

On the _Enterprise,_ Kirk was watching tensely as the _Excalibur _dodged the magnetic grapple as it discharged. With the viewing screen magnified to a hundred percent, he could see some damaged metal get pulled off of her engines.

_That is one powerful magnet_, he thought.

"Captain," said Uhura, pressing a finger to her transmitter. "I'm getting a subspace frequency communications. From...from the trans-U vessel, sir."

"You thought that you could stop me from destroying Vulcan, didn't you? Thought you could stop me altogether?" the bridge crew bristled at the admiral's tone and voice. "Well, you were wrong. I have hit Vulcan in the heart, destroyed their reputation, destroyed their city of T'Paal. Vulcan has been scarred forever."

"Why do you hate our race, so, Cartwright?" came a stern and emotionless voice. Sarek stood in the door way. "What have we done to deserve this animosity?"

"Shut up you motorized computer!" he shouted and Sarek raised an eyebrow. "You've done everything! When I was in school, I had the opportunity to apply for a job in Starfleet. A first officer at an inordinately young age. But then, a damned Vulcan arrived and they took his job application over my own. Why? Because he was your son, you son of a bitch! I let this pass. I was too young anyways and I would have more opportunities. But then, I was sent to Vulcan for studying. Do you know the amount of ridicule I got there? The taunts carefully veiled? Do you think that I would for once forgive you bastards?"

"That is a highly illogical reason to attack a whole civilization and then abduct our children, our people, turning them into assassins," stated Sarek, puzzled for this emotional human's reasoning behind his malicious attack.

"That's not the half of it. Have you ever realized how boring my life was? Lame, boring, uneventful, and marked by my first away mission that landed me in the infirmary. Why? Because of your damned saying, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. I have a false leg on my right side. I lost my whole leg to that saying. And it was unnecessary, too.

"_Stonn_ was my co pilot on that shuttle. We were going to crash, but we could regain orbit if we lost the weight equivalent of one man. So, Stonn pushed me out. Then, as I was falling ten feet, the emergency power came back on. I hit the ground and lost my leg. I was seated in the admiral's position because I was worthless. Never made a difference, never had any power. Then, I was approached by Mohinder. He gave me the idea and I went with it. Time to get revenge on the world that shut me down and stole my life from me." Sarek nodded,

"I can see your position better than before, but I still do not see what justifies your actions." Cartwright laughed on the other end.

"Say it, you bastard. Say the classic line. 'We are an illogical race.' Go on, say it." When there was silence, he continued. "Revenge and having your life ripped away from you is seldom logical." Then, the connection started to tremble and crackle, fading into static.

"What the hell?" hissed Cartwright, trying to get the connection back. The ship lurched and came to a halt. "What's happening here?" There was a slight tapping sound and Cartwright looked around. Nothing. Something fell off of a shelf. Still nothing.

"Wait," ordered Saavik. "The ship has shut down. Do not fire phasers until my command." She took a brief scan of the ship and saw that the life onboard was dwindling and there was one life form that wasn't human or Romulan. She looked up and walked over to her chair. "We seem to have an ally in our endeavors."

"Moroccan, get in here." No response. "Attention, all crew personnel. Report to the bridge." No response. Cartwright set up a scan for life forms and turned it into his ship. He felt cold sweat at his brow and he took the scan over and over again. No one onboard was alive. No one except him. He turned on the visuals of every single hall, deck and room. All that was there was the dead bodies of Reavers. Not a mark on them. Simply dead. Then, the voice started.


	17. Chapter 17

"Cartwright... Mr. Jean Cartwright, rogue Starfleet Admiral." Cartwright looked around, trying to locate the voice unsuccessfully.

"Who's this?" he asked loudly. The voice continued without answering his question.

"You hurt people. You crawl inside me uninvited and you hurt my crew. I see everything that passes."

"Who the hell is this?" he asked, his voice cracking and jumping a pitch. "I swear I don't know what you're –"

"You like to hurt folk. It's why you took the job. Power. Control. Pain. It's okay, Cartwright. Don't worry," the voice said, "Your life won't be complicated for long." The voice was sort of day dreaming, the one of one not entirely present. "Soon, you'll be like the others. A simple life. No life."

"Get down here! Get out where I can see you!" he shouted growing afraid.

"I'm right behind you," said the voice softly. Cartwright spun around, but didn't see any one. "Now, I'm under you, beside you, above you. I'm everywhere Cartwright. Aggravating, isn't it? Hearing voices that no one else can hear? Voices that seem to be coming from no where. Voices that whisper threats to your mind. Rob you of sleep. Turn you wild. Unhinge you." He looked around.

"Are you going to kill me then?! Is that the great mystery of how you killed my crew?!"

"They weren't yours. They were mine. They're on me, and I control them. Just like you."

"No one is controlling me!" he shouted.

"I am. I'm making you afraid. Raising your heart beat. Making you feel like there's something there, ready to pounce on you at any moment. Making your adrenaline run. Listen, Cartwright." She was silent for a minute. "Do you hear that? It's the silence of nothing but your consciousness reflecting back at you. The Silence of a hundred poor souls that were condemned to eternal damnation because of you."

"Is this supposed to be scaring me!" he shouted. "Because it's not!""

"It is scaring you. You're panicking. Think Cartwright. Hear the screams. Women and children as their husbands, brother, sisters, family, and friends turned on them, killing them in brutal ways. Sinclair 12, as the poor children watched the mutilated forms of the Reavers running at them. Watched their parents get killed, slaughtered to never rise again before their very eyes. Watched the shards of rusted metal swing down at their terrified faces and then the sheet of re –"

"STOP IT! Goddammit, stop! If you want to kill me, kill me like a normal man! Not this!" he screamed.

"You're not normal, Cartwright. You have issues. But if it's one on one that you want, not the peaceful slipping into white oblivion...I can arrange that." The voice stopped talking and Cartwright waited for the fear to return to him, the haunting voice. But nothing came and he was met with the silence of a hundred dead. The oppressiveness of what he had done weighing him down. The clanking was heard again and he turned to see a small form crawl, slide and jump down from the rafters like a small monkey.

He began laughing in disgusted amusement.

"Well, well. The little coward murderer returns, using a short circuited comm link to scare the willies out of me. Well done, you little monster."

"It wasn't short circuited." Cartwright felt slight unease. "I rewired it. Like I rewired the magnetic grapple. If you launch that one more time, this whole vessel will blow up bit by bit. Starting with the back and least important parts, leaving the bridge for last. It will be a long and painful wait for you. And I'm not a monster."

"Well, done," he said, clapping, back to his normal self. "Well done, well done." He smiled at her with a sort of proud grin.

"Don't look at me like that," she said simply. "I'm not your little murderer. I never was and I never will be."

"Oh but you will. You see," he walked over to her and put an arm around her shoulder. She snarled and turned to face him. Then, she gasped and her eyes widened as she heard the hiss of a hypo. She shoved him away, making him crash over the console with amazing force. She looked down at her hands and realized what she had just done. What he had just done.

"It has been refined, my dear. It shall suit my needs."

"You so-fu t'ron-tu!" she spat, forcing her body to stop shaking. "Sileia of Vulcan. Sileia of Vulcan. Of Romulus. Of Earth. Sileia. Sileia. Sileia..." She turned away from him and grabbed her head in her hands.

"Chotwl'. Creation of our new empire. You will heed the words spoken and you will serve by my side, forever and ever."

"Sileia...Sileia..." she whispered.

"Chotwl'. Forever and ever. Your law is the creed. And you shall obey my orders." He smiled in satisfaction as he saw her straighten and fall still from the shaking. "Chotwl', forever and ever. Come, my One. We shall go on with our plans." She tilted her head so that she could look at him over her shoulder.

"Fa-wak shroi ri nash-veh nemut zhitlar!" her voice started off soft but turned into a snarl. She screamed and knocked him over and against the glass of the bridge. She stalked over to him and began talking angrily.

"You nearly killed my grandfather and made him nearly kill my grandmother. You killed my best friend and bond-mate Tirang. Did you think that the Vulcan blood feud would be an exception for you because you're human? Did you really think that you could control me?" He saw now that he had sorely underestimated his experiment.

"Do you really think that you can kill me, Sileia? Have you sunk so low as to kill in cold blood?" She regarded him coolly from her position on the other end of the console.

"Have you ever heard of the Stol-kar-fa-lee?" she asked. "It is a practice among Vulcans that gives us the right to kill any one who murders our bond-mate." Cartwright swallowed nervously. "And since Spock didn't have the chance to kill you nice and slowly, I will do it for him." Her eyes glinted with a hard steel that told Cartwright he was screwed.

"_Enterprise_ to Trans-U, _Enterprise_ to Trans-U! Come in Sileia!" said Uhura for the tenth time into the communications. "Nothing sir. But I have scanned the vessel and there two life forms on board. The rest of the Reavers are dead sir." Kirk looked at Spock and he knew that Spock knew who killed the Reavers.

"Who do you think killed them, Mr. Spock?" he asked. Spock looked at him emotionlessly and raised an eyebrow.

"Sileia. Although how she managed it and why, I do not know." Uhura looked at Kirk.

"Sir, why did you ask him that?" she whispered, after Spock left to go to his quarters. "You know that he doesn't want her to be a murderer. But he knows that that is what she can't help but be." Kirk looked at her and noticed that everyone on the bridge was waiting for his answer.

"I couldn't believe it myself. I had to hear it from him to be sure." He looked at Sulu. "Mr. Sulu, how long has it been since Sinclair 12 massacre?" Sulu looked at him, confused.

"It's been five days, sir. Why do you ask?" Kirk shook his head in a don't worry about it fashion. Then, the door slid open and McCoy came walking in.

"Jim, there's something wrong with Amanda. Where's Spock and Sarek?" Kirk spun the chair around to look at McCoy.

"Spock is in his quarters, I don't know where Ambassador Sarek is. He left the bridge after his conversation with Cartwright." Kirk watched as McCoy walked over to the comm. "What's wrong with her, Bones?"

"Would Ambassador Sarek and Mr. Spock report to Sileia's quarters immediately. Ambassador Sarek and Mr. Spock report to Sileia's quarters immediately." He walked to the turbolift. "She's dying, Jim."

When he reached Sileia's room, he felt a heaviness sink into his heart. Sarek was seated at his bond-mate's side, holding her hand and stroking her brow. Even from this distance, McCoy could see the pale skin and the blank eyes. Spock was standing behind his father, hand on his shoulder.

"What happened?" asked Sarek, grief stricken. "Why did she die?"

"She's not dead. Not yet, A'nihri," said Spock. "She's alive." Sarek shook his head.

"Her body is alive, but her mind is dead, gone. I can feel it." Sarek looked at his son in mild surprise that shimmered beneath his sorrow. Spock realized that he had tightened his grip in a comforting way and quickly moved to release his father's shoulder. But Sarek reached up and placed his hand over his son's hand. Staring at Amanda, both of them felt a sense of heavy sorrow descend upon the room. McCoy cleared his throat.

"Do you want... do you want to perform your last order, Spock? For you mother, not you of course." Spock looked at him and shook his head.

"No. We'll wait. See if we can do anything." McCoy nodded and moved out of the room leaving the family to mourn in peace. Spock looked down into his mother's face and gently laid a hand on her forehead, feeling the emptiness that his father felt through their bond-mate meld.

"You see what I was talking about, so-fu," said Sarek, looking into her still face. "She's gone." Spock thought over the events that had passed. What could possibly happened that put Amanda into this unresponsive coma? Then, he remembered how she had been saved before.

"Sileia." Sarek looked at him eyebrow raised in the unspoken question. "Sileia gave the thirty percent of her brain power to mother. That possibly means that she has a connection to Sileia's mind. So, if she was infected with the vaccine onboard the Trans-U vessel, then maybe the third of her mind is technically infected, submitted and taken over. That would be mother's mind." Sarek began speaking slowly,

"So that means that...in order for Amanda to be saved..." he trailed off, not wanting to finish the logical conclusion. This was his wife, the decision should be clear cut.

"Sileia must die," Spock finished.

Spock looked at his mother's unresponsive features and felt that it was illogical to feel this much turmoil over a simple decision. He was asking himself to chose between his daughter's life or the life of his mother. It should be clear cut and simple: his daughter. But when he thought about what the consequences of his decision would be, the death of his mother, the one person that he had always loved who had always supported him and loved him for who he was, he was stopped in his tracks. How could he give or take life to any one?

"We shall await Sileia's return and bring up the issue with her. We cannot make this decision on our own," said Sarek, noting Spock's uncertainty. "I shall leave the two of you in peace." Sarek rose and moved to the door.

"Where will you be?" his son asked, looking at him. Sarek paused before turning around.

"I believe that my daughter-in-law deserves to hear what has happened." Spock nodded and turned back to his mother. The door hissed open and closed.

"Po'vu, ko-mekh? Vu kwon-sum vesh'tra n'i tor pakik, " he whispered. "Why?" Despite his best controls, he felt an ache forming in his chest. He didn't know what to do, all he did know was that his mother was lying before him on her death bed and his daughter was on a potentially deadly ship. And he was powerless to fix or stop anything.

When McCoy entered with a hypo for Amanda, he found Spock seated beside her, one of her frail hands between his two. He laid his hand on Spock' shoulder, but all it did was set the Vulcan off. He stood up and placed his mother's hand on the bed and turned to McCoy.

"I shall report back to my station, doctor. Do what you can." McCoy stood there helplessly as Spock walked out of the room. He looked down at Amanda and felt the weight that had been on Spock settle on him.

"There's nothing I can do," admitted McCoy to the empty room. He walked over to the bathroom to wash his hands and found the door was locked. Puzzled, he continued to enter his pass code until he entered the ultimate end all discussion password: Starfleet's. It didn't open. McCoy sighed in frustration and paused thoughtfully. He reached out and entered the word he pulled out of his head.

A. I. S. L. I. N. N. The door beeped in an almost melancholy way.

The door opened and he nearly passed out. Written in green blood all through out the room were words in Vulcan and none he could understand.

Ni'droi'ik nar-tor. Tyr-al-tep. Eschak. Ke-ta-yatar. Riyeht-stau. T'lema. Vah mau vah tor-yehat ri stau. And then, the big one on the glass that drew all eyes that would gaze upon this horror. Spunau bolayalar t'Wehku bolayalar t'Zamu il t'Veh.

"Oh my god." He reeled backwards and fell on the ground, nearly missing the table. He got up and scrambled out the door, screaming at the top of his lungs for Sarek, Spock, or anyone who knew how to deal with psychotic Vulcans. He sprinted around the corner and ran into Spock, who promptly caught him and tried to stop his mindless babbling.

"Doctor McCoy, please calm yourself, you are drawing attention." McCoy began gesticulating wildly and Spock actually had to dodge one of his flying hands.

"CALM MYSELF! I'M NOT THE ONE WITH THE PSYCHOTIC WRITE ALL OVER THE BATHROOM WITH MY BLOOD DAUGHTER!" the doctor screamed staring at Spock like he was a ghost. "Go look in the bathroom! Go look you green blooded hobgoblin!" Spock grabbed McCoy's arm to steady him and walked back to Sileia's quarters. His mother was still asleep on the bed, or rather, in her catatonic imprisonment. Then, he saw the open door to the bathroom. He released the doctor's arm and led him to a chair. Then, he walked into the room and began translating.

"Ni'droi'ik nar-tor...I ask for forgiveness. Tyr-al-tep...personification of guilt. Eschak...the gift to kill with one's mind. Ke-ta-yatar...deadly, ancient martial arts. Riyeht-stau...murder." he walked farther in and brushed his hand against the green. He pulled back. It was still wet. He looked around again, finding the other phrases.

"T'lema...the one who walks in dreams. Vah mau tor-yehat ri stau...as far as possible do not kill." Then, he saw the big one on the mirror. "Spunau bolayalar t'Wehku bolayalar t'Zamu il t'Veh...The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." McCoy looked at him, still shaken up.

"Oh good, you're translating it," he said sarcastically. "And how does that help? All I know is that your daughter is a psychopath that enjoys draining her blood and writing on the walls with it." Spock shook his head. He held up a sheet of paper with a hand-written, scrawled conversation.

"Why would she do this? It's what mother was saying to me on the bridge. But my name is switched with hers."

"Because she felt that she was cursed. Amanda's memory must have been transferred to her when she saved her life. She must have felt that the conversation applied to her more than any one else on the ship." Spock turned to Sarek. His father walked swiftly over to the bathroom and stared in his stoic manner at the walls. 'This is her handwriting, for sure?" Spock nodded. "Saavik has been keeping an eye on Sileia. She's onboard the Trans-U. And she has killed all the Reavers. That makes this," he brushed his fingers on the word Eschak. "a lot clearer. She killed a ship with her mind." McCoy looked ready to shoot himself.

"What else can you Vulcans do that I don't know about?"

"We can't kill with our minds. It is an old legend, Doctor McCoy. But apparently that is a talent that comes with a fully used mind."

"Bath'pa, ri ta'an!" said Spock sharply, turning to face his father. McCoy raised an eyebrow at the amount of animosity that came with those three words.

"Uh...reminder, there is a human here, so what the hell are you saying?" asked McCoy tentatively.

"My son simply said that it is a curse, not a gift. Or talent," answered Sarek, looking at the doctor. "Can you do anything for Amanda?" McCoy looked down and sighed.

'I've looked at everything, but there's nothing I can do. I'm sorry Ambassador. Spock." Spock walked out of the room in silence and Sarek looked at McCoy.

"Thank you for trying. My son is just overwhelmed at the moment."

"Vulcans get overwhelmed?" McCoy asked in jest. Sarek looked at him in mild appall.

"Yes, we do. We aren't invincible, you know. Could you lock up that room, please?" he asked looking at the bathroom. "Put it under whatever lock it was under before." McCoy nodded.

"Of course, Sarek." Sarek nodded and made to walk out the door. "Sarek." He looked back at McCoy. "Trust me. I did try." Sarek nodded.

"I know you did. We both knew from the start that there wasn't much that could be done." McCoy nodded and Sarek left to go find Spock.


	18. Chapter 18

"We can talk this out –"

"NO MORE TALK!" screamed Sileia, throwing Cartwright across the room. "You brought this on yourself. You can't do anything; you're out matched. You should have let me kill you with my brain!"

"You can't do that!" said Cartwright, sitting up tiredly. "That's impossible!"

"Look at your ship. Is that proof enough?" Cartwright realized now what her weakness was.

"I was right. You are a monster."

"I'm not a monster," said Sileia, drawing herself up and scowling at the man on the ground before her.

"No? Then kill me. Right now in cold blood." He spread his arms out wide and waited. "Go on. Come on." Sileia stopped and stood there. She shook her head.

"I won't be a monster." Cartwright grinned and then pulled a phaser from his belt.

"Good. Cause I will." Sileia stopped and waited. Cartwright continued to point the phaser at her and began getting the controls set. He gently edged the ship forward until it was between the two starships.

'Trans-U to Starfleet ships. Trans-u to Starfleet ships, come in Starfleet ships."

"_Captain Saavik here."_

_"__Captain Kirk."_

"Hello, captains. Well I have to say, you raised your child as a good diplomat Captain Saavik. I'm turning myself in. No tricks nothing. Your daughter has a phaser pointed at my head so..." he shrugged. "I would give you a visual, but," he took a pair of scissors and cut the wires up. "They have been short circuited. I'm giving myself up."

"Sileia? Is this true?" Saavik asked. Sileia eyed the phaser. She refused to answer and Cartwright played a recording of her voice.

"Yes. It is." Sileia was about to shout a warning, but the phaser encouraged her otherwise. "He can't harm any one again."

"_Excalibur _and _Enterprise_ coming in. Hold steady Sileia."

"Order acknowledged," said the computer and Sileia watched in horror as the two vessels closed in. But the phaser kept her silent. When the two ships were right on either side, Cartwright turned off the recording. He guided the ship so that the back part was facing the two ships. The cargo bay door was on that side, so the maneuver was logical.

"Got you." He pressed the magnetic grapple and the back of the ship exploded.

"_Enterprise_ fall back!" yelled Kirk as the explosion sent shards of metal into the engines of his ship. The whole vessel rocked and soon Spock was on bridge.

"What's happened?" he asked, then seeing the magnetic grapple fastened onto the _Excalibur_, giving it the brunt of the assault of the explosions. "Saavik."

"Scotty, what's been damaged?" yelled Kirk into the arm of his chair.

"Warp engines have been severely damaged sir, and our phaser banks are out. We can't help the _Excalibur._" Everyone on the bridge seemed to gasp in grief and helplessness. The _Excalibur_ had come soaring to their rescue, but now the _Enterprise_ couldn't repay the favor.

"Uhura open a channel to the _Excalibur_. Tell them to get off that death trap. We can't help, our phaser banks are out."

"_Excalibur_. This is _Enterprise_ come in please!"

"Saavik here. We're getting off the ship. We can't hold out much longer." There was chaotic noise as they heard the unintelligible shouts of Saavik relaying her order to evacuate ship. "Spock. If you're listening, or seeing this, _this_ is the Kobayashi Maru."

She cut transmission and ran over to her captain's chair. She broadcasted her voice throughout the ship, giving the order to report to the hanger decks they were abandoning ship. Then, she got up and looked around everyone was out. She was about to leave when she saw Vanessa slumped on the floor, nearly hidden in the smoke.

"Go, Saavik. Go," she coughed as Saavik knelt by her. Saavik shook her head and picked her up, hurrying to the turbolift.

As the door slid shut, the screen shattered and she knew that any longer she waited, she would be dead. She ran out of the turbolift, carrying Vanessa over one shoulder, dodging fallen beams. She ran into the hanger deck and watched as one of the last ones took off. She pulled out her communicator.

"_Enterprise_," she yelled. "_Enterprise, _the last of my shuttle craft took off. Everyone is off."

"Saavik, what about you?" she heard Nyota whisper. Saavik nodded in acknowledgement of the question.

"Beam me up." She heard Nyota's panicked shout that she was still on the ship. The order was relayed to the Jim and she heard him contact the transporter room. Soon, the warm feeling filled her and she disappeared, a sheet of hot metal falling where she had been. When she reappeared, she barely had time to pass Vanessa off to McCoy before Nyota hugged her fiercely.

"Don't you do that again, you Vulcan!" she yelled into her shoulder and Saavik hugged her back. Then, she saw Spock standing in the doorway. She gently broke Uhura's embrace and walked over to Spock. She wrapped her arms around him and clung to him like he was the last whole thing on the planet.

"Now you know how I feel every single time you nearly get yourself killed," she said into his shirt. "And I don't plan to show that example again. You look awful." Spock gently held her the way he had held his daughter.

"So do you." Saavik smiled briefly. "Amanda's dying," he said into the top of her hair. She backed away. "It has something to do with Sileia." The comm link whistled and Spock answered.

"Sir, your mother is sleep walking. I – I thought I should tell you," said Riley. Spock's eyes widened and his eyebrows disappeared into his hair.

"Thank you ensign, I shall be right there."

Meanwhile, Sileia was staring at the _Excalibur _in horror as it was drawn into the Reaver ship, exploding brilliantly. She turned to face Cartwright.

"You bastard. You damned, devil-eyed, BASTARD!" she screamed launching at him and pulling his phaser arm to the floor. She punched him hard in the face and he fell back moaning.

She brought her elbow smashing into the side of his head and brought her fist into his stomach. Then, with a sort of theatric finality, she brought her foot back and kicked him hard in the chest. The Talosians were right. She could access it. He fell backwards with extreme force and speed. But her eyes travelled to the soon-to-be-destination of his body and she turned away, hands at the sides of her head.

There was an impact and a startled scream. Then, nothing. She carefully opened her eyes and looked to Cartwright. He was there, propped up on the pike he had been impaled on. She gave him a mock salute and turned to the view screen. Another explosion rocked the ship and she could hear the ship's computer giving the alert.

"Life support failure, check oxygen levels at once. Life support failure, check oxygen levels at once." She took a deep breath and turned on communications.

"_Enterprise_, why aren't you moving?" she yelled. "Get out of here!"

"Sileia?" shouted Chekov, who was in charge of the communications station. "Sileia you're alive!"

"Yes, I am aware of that, Mr. Chekov. Why aren't you moving?!" she shouted.

"Sileia?" asked Sulu. "We can't. When that first explosion went off, we lost everything. Phaser banks, warp. Our transporter just went out. Don't tell me you're still on there?"

"Is my mother okay?" she asked, nervous. She could see the charred remnants of the _Excalibur _attached to the magnetic grapple.

"Yeah. She and your family are over with Amanda. She isn't doing so well." Sileia nodded.

"I know. But she will be soon." She paused. "Sulu, please, open a channel to wherever my parents and family are." Sulu opened the connection and Sileia began talking. "A'nihri? Ko-mekh?"

"Sileia?" asked Saavik. "Sileia, where are you?" Sileia didn't respond.

"Mom, I – I'm not coming back." There was a devastated silence on the other end. "The _Enterprise_ can't move and this ship is going to explode. I'm not taking you all down." She set the controls so that she could take the ship away from the _Enterprise_. The helm barely responded, and the same with the engines, but she managed to start her crawl away from the _Enterprise_.

"Collision course with the sun locked," said the emotionless computer. "If you go through with the plotted course, the ship will explode."

"Understood," she said under her breath. "Mom, dad, Sa'mekh'al? Kho'mekh-il will get better. I promise. She won't have to wait long." On the _Enterprise_, the family was trying to hold down Amanda, who's consciousness seemed to be returning. She was thrashing and trying to stand once more to walk around. "As you lose me," she paused and swallowed, "You'll get her back." She paused and picked at the metal emblem on her medical uniform. She looked up. "I'm on a collision course for the sun."

"Sileia –" began Spock. She cut him off.

"I don't belong. Dangerous, like the Reavers. Can't be controlled. Can't be trusted. Everyone could just go on without me and not have to worry. People could be what they wanted to be. Could be with the people they wanted. Live simple. No secrets...I'll be fine. I'll go to the sun, be purged of my evil like the heretics. And I'll just fade away."

"Sileia, please. We love you," sobbed Saavik. "Just get off the ship."

"I can't. Even if I wanted to. Tell the little one, Eric, and all the others that I said bye. And Scotty, McCoy, Kirk, Chekov, Christine, Uhura, and Sulu." Saavik looked at Spock and gave him the do something look. He opened his mouth to try to find a logical solution to their problem. There wasn't one, and Sileia interrupted him.

"I know you'll try to talk me out of it, Spock. But you know there is no other way. The needs of the many..."

"Outweigh the needs of the few," finished Spock. "Or the one." There was a choked up silence in the room.

"I love you ko-mekh. I love you A'nihri. I wish I knew you Sa'mekh'al. Kho'mekh-il always had stories of you to tell me. Tell Kho'mekh-il that I love her." She watched as the sun Eridani approached.

"Impact with sun in ten, nine, eight, seven..." the computer said in its emotionless tone. Strangely, she felt nothing. There should be thoughts flooding her mind, things she needed to say. But there was nothing. She took her last breath. She touched the emblem.

"I'm going now...ti'amah."

Saavik cried into her husband's shoulder as they watched the scene from Amanda's room. There was a sudden flare and explosion above the sun and Saavik screamed, Spock holding her tightly. Sarek bowed his head and laid a hand on Amanda's head. She was back. But at a terrible price.

"Sileia..." whispered Nyota at the bridge, where she was sitting there, stunned.

In sickbay, Christine heard the scream of Saavik from down the hall and contacted the bridge to find out what had just happened.

"Sileia's dead," came the hollow reply from Kirk. "She just sacrificed herself for us." She turned off the connection and unsteadily made her way to a chair, M'Benga helping her sit down.

"What happened?" asked Vanessa, sitting up in her bio bed. She too had heard the scream. When she heard, she bowed her head.

Her captain's daughter had paid the ultimate sacrifice. The ultimate Kobayashi Maru. She knew now that she would always be proud to serve under this family. They were willing to sacrifice, just as Saavik had gone back for her.

On the bridge, those present listened to the broadcasted noises of the outside world, the roar of the sun, the gentle crackle of lost communications.


	19. Chapter 19

"Will someone turn that off! Let us grieve in peace!" shouted McCoy, teary eyed. "Turn that damn broadcast off!" He turned around and walked into Scotty who was standing there, teary-eyed as well, muttering to himself,

"Aye, the poor wee lass. Why'd she do it? I coulda performed a miracle! I could 'ave saved her. If I only knew how to fix the transporter faster." McCoy put a hand on Scotty's shoulder in silent grief.

"You couldn't have prevented that Mr. Scott," said Kirk, comfortingly. "No one could change her mind. Not even her family." But even Kirk, who usually was so stoic at these types of things was teary eyed. Chekov and Sulu were both mourning by their stations, staring down at their laps in sorrow.

The _Enterprise_ would be stranded there for several days, repairing their damages. But mostly, the Vulcan family along with the rest of the crew were searching the area with their scanners for any sign of Sileia. Any shred of remains that they could bury.

They found nothing. And eventually, they had to leave. But Amanda and Sarek remained on Vulcan to initiate a memorial service for their lost granddaughter on Vulcan. Spock and Saavik were silent for the rest of the trip and kept mostly to themselves. It was to be expected with what happened.

When they met up with two other ships at Sinclair 12, it was Spock and Saavik who walked in first. The stench of five to seven days of decay hit them like a wave, but Spock continued on, searching the bodies for one in particular.

Then, he found him. Spock felt sick when he realized that Tirang was the boy that Uhura had found when they had first arrived. But now, his eyebrows and ears were back to normal: apparently, the chemical was temporary in its basic form.

He was in the coolest area of the center and therefore wasn't as decayed as some of the others. But it still wasn't the prettiest sight. Spock knelt by the boy and placed his hand on his forehead. He could see the vicious knife stab to the chest that had ended his life so quickly.

Even now, he could tell that Saavik had chosen well and he would have been proud to have him in his family. They assisted briefly in the disposal of the other bodies, but they eventually had to leave, the smell got so bad for their heightened senses.

They left for good after finding Tirang's body, taking it onboard the _Enterprise _on an anti-gravity stretcher. Everyone they passed in the halls bowed their heads in respectful difference to the stricken family. And those were moments when Spock was glad he served on this ship, under Kirk, with all of his friends.

The _Enterprise_ finally pulled into home: Earth. Good old Earth. But there was no joy for the bridge crew, or any of the crew. They were coming home one man short, and with nothing to use as a memorial.

But then, everything changed. A message was sent from Vulcan along with a small package. The message was brief and handwritten from Amanda. Apparently, there had been some items that the shuttle crafts and scanners had missed.

In the box were several items that were definitely Sileia's. Thankfully, there was no body or body parts. Inside were scraps of blue fabric, a few locks of hair, and a few bits of Vulcan material from her boots. But the final one was what undid Saavik again and nearly Spock: her smudged and burned Starfleet emblem that she had been fingering before she impacted with Eridani. Now, they had something to place in the grave with Tirang, even though it wasn't much.

But then Scotty came up with the wonderful idea that Sileia's parents never ceased to thank them for. Now, the coffin that would have held Sileia, had her body been found, projected a hologram of their daughter sleeping. It looked as though she really was there, just more transparent. Now, they had someone to send off to the next world. The remains that were found were place in the coffin with her, except for the emblem.

The funeral service was held for the close friends and family. That meant Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Jim, McCoy, and Christine. The headstone was simple yet elegant, with holopads around it. There were flowers already there, probably from Vanessa. It was cold and everyone could see their breath. Winter was a fine time to have a funeral, thought McCoy bitterly.

It was a simple event. Everyone came dressed in the formal uniform and Scotty came with his bagpipes. As Tirang and Sileia were lowered into the ground, Scotty's 'Amazing Grace' rang out throughout the cemetery.

Uhura was constantly sniffling and staring at the burial plot. Christine had her hands clenched together before her and she was staring at the ground silently crying. Bones had his hand placed on her shoulder and he too was staring at the ground. Sulu and Chekov were standing beside Uhura. The trio were together, though. Kirk and McCoy stood to the left of the Vulcan couple and watched them carefully as the processions went on. Then, in the moment of silence, Chekov started talking.

"Mz. Sileia. You taught me to be villing to sacrifice myself for my friends," he said. "You didn't deserve anyzing zhat happened to you. You vere a sweet girl and ve can only hope zhat you are somevhere better." He looked to Sulu. He cleared his throat.

"Sileia, you taught me to be brave in the face of danger and to do what is right, no matter what the consequences. You taught me to be dedicated to everything I do. And for that I am thankful. Rest in peace," said the helmsman. He looked to Christine.

"Dear Sileia. You were an angel who escaped from hell. You saw many horrors but you always fought back. You always tried to return to who you were, to be yourself and to never let anyone else define who you were. Thank you, sweet hell angel. Thank you and rest in peace." Uhura picked up.

"Oh, Sileia," she began, smiling. "You showed me the world from another point of view. When you visited me in the linguistics department and we started having conversations in Vulcan, I learned how to view the world with the wonder of a child. Only the good die young, and you were an angel. You'll forever be shining and looking after your family. You are still there, above the sun, shining like her, a little guardian angel. You will teach devotion, loyalty, and love for generations to come. You are in a better place, and we all miss you dearly. Be at peace." She looked to McCoy.

"Oh, gee, kid," he started off and that put everyone on the verge of tears. "Look, I – I know that we didn't get off so well, reminding me of your dad and all. But...I just want you to know that you meant something to me. You were special and I cared for you, just like I'm your dad's friend and always saving his sorry ass. I just wanted you to know that. Sleep well, little one. Continue walking in our dreams." Spock closed his eyes as McCoy said that last line: the walls of the bathroom. McCoy wiped his eyes in annoyance and looked to Jim.

"Sileia, I know I never really talked to you...but you were inspirational. You taught me that it is okay to die alone. We all die some day, and you died the way of the forever glorified martyr. I will make sure that your story goes on. I will keep your memory alive on the _Enterprise_, in Starfleet, and I will keep your memory alive in my heart. You did what I would have done for my ship, but you did it for us. You were an amazing talented girl, and I hope you are happy where ever you are."

Bones hesitated before diving into it.

"Spock," he said, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder. "S'ti th'laktra," he said with some difficulty and Spock looked at him in mild surprise submerged in grief. "I know that that is the term you use for a bereaved family member, and well...you are family, both of you."

"Lesek, t'hai'la," said Spock to his friend and McCoy noticed the clenched jaw and glistening eyes. Christine walked over and hugged Saavik, followed by Uhura. Jim, Sulu and Chekov shook Spock's hand giving him their condolences. Uhura paused before Spock. Then, throwing caution to the wind, she hugged him. When she backed off, they could see that Spock had finally shut himself down emotionally. There was no emotion on his face and they all realized he had been on the verge of breaking. Christine laid her hand on his arm and she could feel how tense he was. All she said was,

"I'm so sorry." Spock looked down and nodded.

Uhura, Chapel, Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, McCoy, and Jim began to move away to wait by the entrance to the cemetery. They knew that they needed to give them some time.

"Sileia chose him, you know?" Saavik whispered in Vulcan. "They made the arrangements, not me." Spock looked up from Tirang's and Sileia's grave. "I approved afterwards. I felt she was too young, but they were meant for each other. And now they are together again." Spock nodded, he couldn't do anything else. He knelt down in the freshly turned soil and placed his hand on the moist ground before the headstone and small circular platforms surrounding it.

"Pi'sa-fu, ni'droi'ik nar-tor na'ri nenikaya vu eh Sileia. Kuv Sileia lam-tor be'vu...do'pra ni'droi'ik nar-tor," he said softly, hoping that the boy could hear him. "Tell her I'm sorry." Saavik knelt by him and pressed the touch screens on the small holopads. One by one they came to life.

Saavik holding their newborn child. Sileia with her nose buried in a book. Her and Tirang holding hands and standing still, looking out over an invisible scenery. Tirang writing a letter to someone, supposedly Sileia. Then, there was the biggest one: one of Tirang whispering in her ear, Sileia laughing, and him pulling back to laugh, too, in silence. The unseen breeze made their clothes and hair whip in the wind.

And that was when Spock realized: he'd never heard his daughter's laugh. Never in the short, horror-filled time that he had known her had he heard her laugh.

"It was delicate, like silver bells." Spock looked at her uncomprehending. "Her laugh," whispered Saavik, gently squeezing her bond-mate's hand. Spock realized that he had asked her unintentionally with his mind. "T'hyla. They found this on her dresser on the _Enterprise_." She handed him a small hand held device that held a recording. He rose and waited for Saavik to rise with him. She let her hand trace over the name Tirang S'chn T'gai and Sileia S'chn T'gai before standing.

"I never really knew her." Saavik looked at Spock.

"Yes you did. Everything that she did was reminiscent of herself. That's who she was, with out the...issues that were put on her from what she had been through." She held his hand and asked, "Are you going to listen to it?" He opened his fist and pressed the button that played whatever was recorded on it.

_Recording. Hi, I guess. This is a message for Spock, and for Saavik, of Vulcan. And I really hope you are the ones listening to it. I'll spare you the boring details. I've realized that I've really messed things up. So I made a plan to fix things. All that matters is...I don't expect to come back from that plan. And I wanted to tell you two where I want to be going, which is home. I'd like my body, or whatever is left of me, to be with Tirang on Earth. We both wanted to go there someday, and you two visit Earth regularly. I don't want to haunt you whenever you are on Vulcan, so...You know, it's funny. We went to Vulcan and all those other times never looking to come back, but it's...it's when we had to end it, the simplest part of blowing up the ship, killing Cartwright, that I couldn't survive. Mom, you carried me through my life. Now I need you and dad to carry me just a little bit further….I want to tell you that I'm at peace. It wouldn't be fair to just leave you without explanation. I know my death will come as a shock, and dad, you never really knew me, but the needs of the many outweigh...well, you know the rest. Thanks, both of you. There is a holocam chip in here. Take it out and play it before Nyota, Pavel, Hikaru, Montgomery, Leonard, and Jim. Thank , yeah, and, uh...if there is a body, make sure my eyes are closed. Sileia out._

Saavik took a deep breath and leaned against her husband as he wrapped an arm around her. With his left hand, he found the clasp and opened the device. A small chip fell out and hit the ground. Saavik bent down and picked it up, walking over to one of the larger holograms, the one of her child and her bond-mate laughing. She pulled out the chip and placed it in her coat pocket. She rose and looked over at the waiting bridge crew. She waved them back over.

"What is it, Saavik?" asked Nyota, coming over to her. The woman only shook her head and placed the chip in. A large, life-size hologram came up of Sileia.

"If you all are listening to this, it means that I have died, and my plan to bring down the Trans-U vessel and Cartwright has succeeded. It was in the course of action, for people I loved and called family that I died, and it means that the Vulcan Incident nightmare is over. I have already paid my respects to my parents and direct family. Now it is time for you all, my family, too. In my quarters, I made a compartment. In my closet, under one of the floor tiles, is a chest of items. Use the password that was used to get into the bathroom to open it, McCoy. In there are all of the gifts that I plan to leave to you upon my death." She paused before continuing.

"Chekov. Your devotion to your country, your accent, and all of your actions serve to tell us all exactly who you are. A kind, loyal, and forever happy navigator. I am glad to be able to call you friend. In that box, there is a book of Russian photos throughout the ages. People who were leaders, entertainers, or just plain citizens. Cities, old buildings, wilderness, and animals. All of Mother Russia's inwentions." She smiled and continued. "Keep smiling, and remain happy.

"Mr. Sulu, the plant loving, kind, supportive, fencing helmsman." Sulu swallowed and looked down. "I never really talked to you much, but you were always a constant presence there, and I knew that I could fall back on you if I needed support. Remain a loyal comrade to everyone and continue to steer her right. In the box, there is a holocam in which I have recorded all of the fighting techniques that I have inherently learned through my ordeal. If you can master those moves, you will be a galaxy wide, feared swords man. Keep fighting." She smiled.

"Oh, Christine. You are the kindest nurse I have ever met. You were there for me when no one else was. When I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming, you were there to calm me down. You were there to smile with me, cry with me, and hold me when I was scared. I have given you two books." She smiled in a way that reminded Spock of Saavik's devil smile when she had been a little girl just off of Hell's Guard.

"One is on how to and how not to talk to a Vulcan." She grinned widely and laughed as though she could see Christine look down and blush and Spock nearly face-palmed. Then, Spock looked up. She had laughed. It did sound like bells. "I had to, I'm sorry. The second is a book on biology research, the newest and most recent. I know that that was your post when you first came on board, and I thought I'd give you something to remember that. Remain on the _Enterprise_ for years to come. Sick bay would be a lot more morbid without you.

"And on that note, for you, Doctor McCoy. I apologize for scaring you with the bathroom. I have no recollection of performing that action, save for a slight moment of memory loss. I know that you are kind, but you have a prickly outside, so I have decided to describe you as...a marshmallow covered in cactus spikes." She smiled again and Chekov sniggered, earning himself a swat from Kirk. McCoy looked at her like he might break down in emotions any moment.

"You need to let that kindness show more, as I should have let mine. I want you to know that you would have been my counsellor if I had been given the opportunity to stay longer. You would have given me someone to rant to, and you would probably add in a few choice words of your own. I want you to know that I always wanted to be your friend, the same way that you are friends with my father. Arguing but friendly arguing. I have given you a new set of beakers and test tubes to replace the ones you broke when I accidentally scared you. I hope that they come in handy soon in the future. With it is also a letter that I will not tell you the contents of at this gathering. All you need to know is that I was the middle man for a person at the base. I believe that the paper may be slightly blood stained and crinkled since it was on me all that time.

"Nyota. You were the sweetest woman on board that ship. You always had great stories, you taught me some choice words in other languages, and you were the shoulder I could lean on when I needed someone. You are the mother of the Enterprise and her crew, and I can't think of anyone better suited for the job. You have a beautiful voice and you are very talented especially in the department of art and music. For you I have given you two musical instruments: a Terran lap harp that Spock can help you learn and a Ressikan flute. Enjoy the talent that you have, and never stop playing. Thank you for everything.

"Dear Kirk. You have been the figure of leadership for me. You always listened to what I had to say, saw the logic in my decisions and allowed me to go through with it because I was best suited for the job. I hope that you remain that open to everyone throughout your career. Because it really gets you far. It gives you the loyalty of your crew, and if I had stayed, I would have been that loyal crew member. You are an amazing captain and you extend your friendship to everyone, no matter what they are or what they look like. Keep that going. For you I have given you a spyglass, so that you may gaze at the stars in the way that the captains of old did. For you are just like the captains from the story books. Kind, loyal, and just. Do not blame yourself for my death. It wasn't your doing, it was my decision.

"Oh, Scotty. Your accent and your great Scottish pride have always been your strongest points. But even stronger is your sense of duty, friendship, and love. Your ship is your sole pride and glory, and I expect you to be taking good care of her in the many long years to come. Your friendly manner is always what lightens my day, with your simple 'lass.' I hope that you will extend this same art of brightening the day with your very presence. I hope you play or played 'Amazing Grace' for me with your bagpipes at my funeral. I know that you blame yourself for not being able to beam me up in time. But that wasn't your fault. I was ready to go for you all and...well, that's all that matters. But, I don't want anyone else to die because the modern day technology is too long in fixing. So for you, I have used my enhanced knowledge to create a new wiring system for the transporter. It is now able to be fixed very simply and very quickly. Of course, it is only a rough schematic and will need to be touched up by you. But that is my gift to you: a new schematic on the transporter so that you will never feel this burden of guilt again. It is in the box with everyone else's gifts. Make the most of it, Mr. Scott. Sileia out." She gave the Vulcan salute. "Beam me up, Scotty."

Her body faded in a holocam effect similar to that of a beam and everyone was silent. Saavik was still leaning against Spock and they looked at the empty holopad in silence. Chekov was sniffing and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. Christine and Uhura were holding hands and Sulu was standing at attention. Jim and McCoy looked over at Spock. They nodded once to him and he nodded back.

They stood there for a very long time.


	20. Chapter 20

A few days later, the _Enterprise_ received a transmission from Vulcan. The memorial for Sileia and Tirang there was done, and she had in fact been declared a martyr of the Vulcan race. Beside the statue of Surak that she had fought beside and killed Agent Mohinder, there was a memorial of all the Vulcans and citizens of the planet that had been killed. And at the center, there was a statue of Sileia standing there in her _Enterprise_ medical uniform. In her left hand was the axe. Her right hand held the hand of Tirang, who was standing beside her. They had continued to scan for remains of their child, but nothing had come up.

The battle weary ship had been given a three month's leave as a token of sympathy for everything they went through. And everyone was just getting out of the last of their mourning stages nearly two months later. Chekov had nearly memorized all of the words in his book _Mother Russia_ from Sileia, and he wouldn't shut up about all the things that were invented there.

Sulu was now an undefeated champion in fencing and had won several awards from the tournaments he got shanghaied into. He always dedicated his knowledge and skill to Sileia and vowed to never stop practicing. He eventually got so good that he even gave Spock a run for his money in terms of combat. But he never got so good that he could beat another Vulcan.

Uhura could play both instruments as well as anyone else and the cottage that the bridge crew had rented was always filled with music, sometimes with Saavik or Spock playing his lyre along with her. She was giving lessons in linguistics too for a short time.

Scotty had finished rewiring the transporter and christened it the Sileian Model. It soon became a desired plan throughout the fleet. But he never did let on where he got the idea from, nor did he give it to the central command for mass production. He meant to keep it secret from the admiralty because of what happened to Sileia, the creator, and who was responsible for her death. He dedicated the idea and the schematics to someone else, but he never did tell who. And for the rest of his voyages, no one ever got left behind because of a faulty transporter.

Kirk was always found at night outside, looking up at the stars with his spyglass. He was always contemplating what Sileia had said to him and to everyone, but he never really spoke when doing his nightly routine. And no one talked to him. They knew that Sileia had hit him right in the heart with what she had told him. And they knew he needed time to come to terms with her words of wisdom.

Christine could now carry out a conversation with Spock that was no longer awkward or filled with gaping holes of silence. She also could carry a conversation with him about biological research because now she knew exactly what the hell he was talking about. She finally told Saavik also what had happened with Sileia about the informal, Talosian brain surgery, the nightmare and everything else that happened since Sarek had filled her in. It was a lot of information, but she took it well.

McCoy had already set up the set of beakers and test tubes on the _Enterprise_ and now he was reading the letter that Sileia had left him. It was a letter from his daughter Joanna, and she was asking him to notify her when he next visited. McCoy felt happiness in him for the first time since Sileia's death. Now, he could go on with his life and tell his daughter how sorry he was: starting over. Over all, everyone was going back to normal. Even Saavik didn't seem as low and glum as she had for the past two months. The one person McCoy was worried about, though, was Spock.

At first, he had been quiet, which really wasn't that strange since he was always quiet and his daughter had just been killed, or rather self-sacrificed. But then, he started leaving for long periods of time, usually to the library, where he looked through every single Vulcan record there was. After four days of vanishing all day, McCoy finally followed him. What he saw made him feel sorry for his friend.

It was one of his seminars, muted of course, on Vulcan. He was looking through every single seminar he ever gave on Vulcan and looking at every single face, trying to find one girl. As he watched, he paused the seminar and brought up one person in high definition. It was Sileia, perfectly normal. Her head didn't have the scar. She was healthy. Her eyes were whole and present and her entire stance said that she was in the prime of her childhood. She was raptly paying attention and her notebook was filled with notes. The position and the expression reminded McCoy of his friend more than her mother.

"She looks like you, Spock." Spock immediately pressed several keys and the image was lost, the computer shutting down. "So the grumpy, untouchable Vulcan's story starts to come out," said McCoy walking over and sitting beside his friend. "All this time, you've still been trying to find her."

Spock shook his head. "No." McCoy frowned slightly.

"Then...why are you here?" Spock looked up from his hands and stared at the wall. "Come on Spock, you can tell me." He turned to face the doctor.

"Because that is the reason that Tirang is dead. That is the reason that children and parents saw someone that they thought they could trust kill their loved ones." Spock spoke so quickly and bitterly that McCoy was immediately concerned. This wasn't the Spock he was used to. "They took the image from Sileia's mind. They took the image of one she could trust, and used it to lure them out. She said that she had been to one of my seminars on Vulcan. This was the one." He sighed and rose. "Ironically, the one on the IDIC. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations."

"Well, she was certainly that, Mr. Spock," said McCoy softly. "Come on Spock. It's time to let go and move on. Everyone else is." Spock looked at the doctor and said with a hint of anger in his voice,

"If Joanna died, would you be able to?" McCoy stopped at that statement. Then, he nodded.

"If she did what Sileia did, then yes. I believe that I could. Because I would be celebrating in the life she guaranteed me having instead of mourning the life she gave for me so I could live that life." Spock looked at McCoy and the doctor could see that he had something locked away inside him.

"What is it, Spock? You're hiding something."

"I should have been able to save her. Anything, something that I could have said to convince her, or comfort her. I could have taken a shuttlecraft to her. I could have tried something at least." McCoy shook his head. He knew how Spock felt. It was how he felt every time one of his patients died. "But instead, I did nothing. Said nothing to her as she flew to the sun. Nothing." McCoy put his hand on Spock's shoulder as the Vulcan sat back down.

"You blame yourself for her death. You feel guilty for something that you couldn't stop," he said in realization. "Spock, they say that in those times, the silence can say volumes more than what any words could. She didn't blame you." Spock walked out the door and left McCoy staring at an empty chair.

He brought the photo of Sileia up again, and saw what had set off the Vulcan. Behind her, watching her intently were Mohinder and Cartwright. The foul idiots had been stalking her even then. He sighed and shut down the computer once more.

When he returned "home" or to the cabin, rather, he saw that Saavik and Spock were walking together hand in hand in the grounds, no doubt talking about what he had found in the library. But as he watched, Saavik stopped and turned Spock to face her. He couldn't see Spock's facial reaction from so far back, but he saw the tell-tale stiffening and slight rocking back that happened when something extremely surprising happened. Then, Saavik sort of shouted in happiness, threw her arms about his neck, and held her husband; now he could see the lines of happiness in both of their body language.

"Vhat happened to zhem?" asked Chekov, finally stopping with the list of items that were invented in Russia. Sulu, grateful for this distraction so he could run away from Pavel before he continued, hurried over to McCoy. "Zhey are so happy."

"Is that a bad thing, Mr. Chekov?" asked Kirk looking up from his newspaper. But he too looked confused as he saw the amount of happiness before them. Soon, everyone was clustered outside the garden path, looking at the couple. We couldn't be more conspicuous, McCoy thought wryly.

"What could have changed that jolted Spock out of his mourning? I know he's still hit hard," commented Sulu, leaning on the fence. Christine and Uhura walked over, wearing those knowing looks.

McCoy looked at the two women, eyebrows in that do I really want to know look. Uhura just broke out into a large smile and made a cradling gesture with her arms. Christine swatted her arms down and hissed "Shhh!" with her finger over her mouth. But she was laughing as she did it, making the statement a little loud. They both collapsed in ecstatic laughter and smiles.

McCoy's eyes widened and he became dizzy. So, it was a big surprise to Scotty when the doctor passed out, falling backwards onto the engineer.

Eventually, the _Enterprise_ went back on duty and Saavik went with them. Now, everyone could see the beginning signs. Their first stop would be Vulcan, where they would drop off Saavik and check up on the planet's reconstruction.

It was going well, and Amanda and Sarek were delighted with the news that their "family" brought to them.

Before they left, they stopped by the memorial. Uhura traced her hand on the boots of Sileia the statue. It was too perfect. It looked too much like her. Spock looked down the list for names he knew because he couldn't stand to look at the figure looking out with that brave look Sileia had, standing the way she had, being who she had been. To his slight horror, he found several.

T'Pring, Stonn, Sulvok, and several other childhood acquaintances had been lost, along with several of the young children his mother taught at the academy. The others left and, eventually, he followed to the rendezvous point. After bidding his bond-mate farewell, Spock beamed up to the ship, promising to return in about seven months.

The _Enterprise_ was successful in several more missions and, thanks to Sileia, no one was left behind this time. No transporter malfunctions or accidents of any sort. So, they were able to report back to Vulcan right on time. Spock took his three years accumulated shore leave and remained on Vulcan after telling Uhura that yes he would keep in touch and getting everyone to stop badgering him and giving their happy comments of luck and advice.

When he beamed down and saw his daughter's memorial once more, he felt the sense of guilt for Sileia's death slowly lifting and he felt as though he could go on with life again. Because McCoy was right: _because I would be celebrating in the life she guaranteed me having instead of mourning the life she gave for up for me so I could live my life._

Soon, Spock was seated beside Saavik, staring down at the small form in his T'hyla's arms: the pointed ears, dark hair, green tinted skin, and dark eyes. She looked up at him and neither of them had to list names. They both knew what this little one's name was.

Eridani.


	21. Chapter 21

_**Three Years Later**_

"Where is A'nihri?" asked the small, three year old boy seated on the bed. "Why did he go?" Saavik picked up her son and walked around the room with him. She stopped at the window and looked out at the starry sky.

"He had to go back to work, little one," she said softly, stroking his jet black hair. "He works on the best ship in the universe. And he is the first mate. He couldn't stay away forever." The little Vulcan looked at her with dark, serious eyes. She took him back over to his bed and laid him down on it, pulling the covers up and over his small body.

"He never told me that." Saavik looked at him. She really didn't want to discuss this now.

"He cared for you, sweet one. That's why he never mentioned having to leave again," she said gently, brushing her hand against his cheek. She blew out the oil lamps that the Vulcans used and was about to walk out the door. "He'll be back, though, Eridani. Don't worry. He'll be back."

"Ko-mekh?" he asked and she walked back over to him. He looked a little uncertain as to ask or not. "Who's the girl in the center?" She smiled.

"Which girl, little angel? There are a lot of girls on Vulcan." Eridani shook his head.

"The statue. The one of the girl with the axe holding the hand of the other boy?" Saavik closed her eyes and released her breath slowly. She had known this day would come, but she hadn't known it would come so soon. "I didn't mean to upset you, ko-mekh. I'm sorry."

"No little one..." she whispered. "It's time you knew." She opened her eyes and looked at her son. "I'm going to tell you a story tonight before you go to bed, okay? It's the story of that girl."

"Okay. Her name was – was – Sil – Sileina?" said Eridani uncertainly.

"Sileia, sweetheart. Her name was Sileia. And she was your sister," said Saavik unsteadily.

"Really?" he asked. "Where is she? Why is she so famous?" Saavik felt tears come up in her eyes and she blinked them away. "Can I see her?" Saavik shook her head.

"Eridani. Have you ever thought why you were named for our planet's sun?" she asked. Eridani cocked his head to the side and answered honestly.

"No. Why?" Saavik took a deep breath.

"You'll have to listen to the story to find out. Your sister, Sileia, was a gift. She was smart, beautiful, and kind. Your father didn't know that he had a daughter, so he hadn't met her. I decided that she should go on the _Enterprise_ and meet up with him there. Go on a voyage with him." She shook her head sadly. "But then, there was a bad man, named Admiral Cartwright. He wanted your sister for a government experiment. He turned her into a human, messed around with her brain, and destroyed her. She never was completely right afterwards." Eridani pulled his knees up to his chin and shivered. "Are you sure you want to hear this? It can always wait until you are older."

"I want to hear it," he said softly.

"But your sister wasn't the only one taken. Several other children and her bond-mate were taken as well. That is who the boy is: Tirang, her bond-mate. The rest of the Vulcans were killed except your sister and Tirang. They escaped to another planet, but the bad man's men followed them. He had monsters at his disposal. He sent them to the planet and they killed almost everyone. Including Tirang. Your father's image was used to draw them out...and they killed Tirang. Then, your sister learned what she was capable of. She suddenly forgot everything that happened and when she 'woke up,' she was alone, holding two axes like the one in the statue and everyone was dead.'

"She killed the bad men?" he asked, hushed. Saavik nodded.

"But only a few of them. She got to the communications room and sent up a distress call. Your father's ship picked it up and Spock found her. They didn't know who each other were, and your sister didn't remember who she was or what her name was. Only her Terran name: Aislinn. So, Spock took her onboard, but Sileia was convinced he had killed the colony. So she tried to kill your father and nearly succeeded." The story went on and Eridani's eyes got wider and there was a sort of awe in them. She reached the part where her daughter had killed Cartwright and was in charge of the ship.

"But where is she now?" he asked as Saavik stopped. "She saved the _Enterprise_ and Vulcan." Saavik shook her head and looked at him seriously.

"Not yet, Eridani. She had rigged the ship to start exploding when the magnetic grapple was launched. Cartwright launched it and held the _Excalibur_, my ship, imprisoned. I nearly died, but the _Enterprise_ saved me just in time. But your sister had to get the ship away from the _Enterprise. _It was going to explode and the _Enterprise_ couldn't move. So, she plotted a course for the sun. And sailed forward. No fear in her voice as she told us what she was doing. No fear in her as she sailed to her never found her body. Just scraps of material, locks of hair. And this." She opened her hand to reveal Sileia's emblem. It was still scorched and in the same condition of four years back. "This was your sister's." Eridani held it as gently as a baby bird and looked at it.

"She saved Vulcan. That's why she's a hero. And that's why you are named Eridani. After our sun, which shines down on us with the brightness of Sileia's good soul. She's always there for you, Eridani." She smoothed her son's hair down, and he handed the emblem back to her.

"She was really brave. I would have been really scared," he said softly, looking out to the sky.

"Yes, she was really brave. I love you, so-fu."

"I love you, too, ko-mekh." He held out his hand in the Vulcan embrace, and Saavik put her paired fingers against his. As she walked out the door, she heard her little son say the words that broke her heart. "Goodnight, Sileia. I wish I knew you." She turned back to see him holding his paired fingers out towards the window to the sky where Sileia's ashes were scattered. For that was all she would be by now. Then, he lowered his hand and fell asleep.

Saavik wiped her tears and made a call to the _Enterprise_. Uhura gave her a channel to Spock.

"Spock," she said, softly.

"Are you okay? Is Eridani okay?" came his urgent voice. She swallowed and looked at her husband's face on the screen. He had noticed the tears. "He asked...didn't he." She nodded.

"He knows her story now. I just thought I should notify you." Spock nodded.

"Will you be all right?" Saavik nodded. "Okay, T'hyla. Contact me if anything else occurs. I will send a message to you at a later time."

"Okay, T'hyla," she whispered and the transmission ended. She sat back in her chair and stared out the window at the sky.

In his dreams, Eridani was talking to a girl who looked remarkably like the girl statue.

"Sileia?" he asked, puzzled. She nodded and reached out to him. He shivered as he felt the sorrow in the distant gesture.

"You are so precious, Eridani," she whispered. He looked and he could see every detail. The scar on the side of her head, the look in her eyes that set her apart from normal people. He ran to her and hugged her.

"Are you really here? Or is this a dream?" he asked. She smiled, held him tightly, and tilted her head to the side.

"Mother told you my story tonight. I thought it was the right time to make my presence known to you. I will always be here for you, brother." She backed away and looked at him. "You look a lot like father."

"No. I look a lot like you. Mother always said so. Said that I looked like her. But she never told me who." Sileia smiled at her little brother and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"If you ever need me, you need only go to sleep. I'll always be here for you." She began backing away to stand beside Sulvok and Tirang.

"But are you really here? Or is this a dream?" he called again.

"The _Enterprise_ will be your home. Seek out the _Enterprise_ bridge crew. They will be your family and friends forever and ever."

"Is this real? Or are you a figment of my imagination?!" he repeated, frustrated.

As she started to fade, she continued talking.

"Of course this is a dream. But why does that mean I'm not real?" He decided that his sister could be aggravatingly ambiguous at times. Then, he jolted awake and found himself staring up at the ceiling of his room.

_**Three Years Later...Star Base 6 **_

"You sure that you have everything?" asked Saavik for the millionth time.

"Yes mother, I'm sure," he said patiently. Then, his Romulan and Human sides won out. "But can you stop with the nagging!" Saavik smirked and placed a hand on his head.

"Well, your father will come into port in five minutes. Give this to him. I promised him that I'd tell him everything that has happened since we saw him last." Eridani looked up at her. He had never told her about his dream three years ago. Then again, he had never seen _her_ again. He shook the thought away and looked up at Saavik.

He knew how much this meant to his mother. Star Base 6 had been the base she had left Sileia at and the base she had been kidnapped at. And she was going to send her second child off on a voyage with the _Enterprise_.

"Don't worry, mother. It is highly unlikely that we will run into any trouble. It has been six years," he said softly. Saavik looked down at him and smiled. Eridani had a talent for cutting to the heart of matters. Something he got from her. But when he desired, he could go through a long winded argument and usually win. That, he got from his father.

"I know, so-fu. But it's the _Enterprise_. They always run into trouble."

They looked up as they watched the _Enterprise_ come into port. She was in one piece and there seemed nothing wrong with her for once. They docked and the crew came off, chattering and overall happy, to load and unload cargo and receive their next assignment. Eridani looked up at his mother and she nodded him over to the ship.

"Go on. That's Riley right there. Just go to him and say that you are here to board the _Enterprise_." Eridani smiled and gave his mother a quick hug. Then, he ran over to Riley.

"Good evening little chap," he said, squatting down to his level. "What can I do for...great Charles-Wallace-of-Scotland!" He looked past the young Vulcan and saw Saavik wave slightly. He stood up and pulled out a communicator.

"Two to beam up, _Enterprise_. The angel has returned, repeat the angel has returned." He put a hand on Eridani's shoulder and the little Vulcan waved farewell to his mother as he and Mr. Riley vanished in a transporter beam.

When the transporter beam placed them on the transporter pad, he looked around in wonder. The interior of the ship was better than he had ever imagined.

"Welcome aboard, lad," came the Scottish voice. Eridani looked at the transporter control panel and saw Scotty walking over to him. He knelt before him. "What's yer name?"

"Eridani. After the sun." Scotty nodded in sorrow and happiness, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Welcome aboard, Eridani," came another voice. This one was deeper and Eridani knew it from birth. He looked over to the door and saw Spock standing there.

"A'nihri!" he shouted and ran over to him, Spock grabbed his son and pulled him up to rest on his hip as the boy hugged him tightly. He gave Scotty and Riley the don't start look before walking from the transporter room. Right into the waiting bridge crew. Scotty slipped past them, beaming.

"Oh. My. Lord. Spock is holding a child," came the southern drawl of Doctor McCoy. "What is this world coming to?" McCoy smiled and Spock raised an eyebrow at his friend. Eridani dropped to his feet and held out the slightly crumpled envelope to Spock.

"Ko-mekh said to give this to you." He seemed to be looking for anything to do than be stared at. Everyone seemed nice, but being stared at constantly wasn't fun either.

"Thank you, so-fu," he said softly, taking the letter, letting his hand rest on his son's head.

"He's so like his sister," said Chekov from the back and everyone looked to him. "Vhat? It is zhe truth."

"Ko-mekh thinks so, too," said Eridani softly. An awkward silence filled the room.

"What are we doing, dwelling on those gone?" said Uhura sharply. "Come on Eridani. I'll show you the ship." Uhura began walking with Eridani and the rest of the bridge crew followed her except Kirk. He stayed beside Spock and watched them depart down the hall.

"It's been six years, Spock. And she still haunts us all," he commented. Spock nodded.

"It is hard to forget one who did so much, Jim. She did save our lives and your ship." Spock opened the letter and began reading. It was written in Vulcan, so he felt no issue reading it before Jim.

"Everything okay?" he asked, noting the raised eyebrow.

"Quite. She just threatened that she was going to kill me if I let any thing happen to our child this time." Kirk nodded sagely.

"Yep. Mothers and wives tend to do that sort of thing." Together the two old friends walked down the halls to catch up with the others. "Your son will fit in here. So long as he isn't called Sileia."

"He apparently had a dream the night he found out about her. Sileia came to him and told him to trust the _Enterprise_ crew. To make them his family and friends forever."

"How do you know that?" Spock looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"He rewired the program for the computer and sent me a message right after without notifying his mother." Kirk's eyes widened and he nodded. At age three and already a genius.

"Yep. Definitely yours and Saavik's son. And Sileia's brother." Spock nodded.

"Most definitely." He looked at Kirk. "Will you take him in?" he asked, quietly.

"Spock are you kidding?" he said incredulous. "Of course we'll take him in. Just like we took in you, Saavik and Sileia. Whatever Sileia said, about us being her family and for him to trust us and make us family was correct. We'll take him in and we'll raise him as one of our own."

"As long as he isn't exactly like his father, I may grow to like the kid," muttered McCoy as the two men walked into the briefing room. Kirk gave him a look and McCoy shrugged in a "what?" way.

"Now, lad. Can ye tell me what this here does?" asked Scotty's voice from the desk. "An' why it isn' workin'?" The engineer turned it on and all he got was a bunch of white noise and numbers and words. The little Vulcan boy's eyebrows seemed to come together almost fractionally.

Eridani reached up and brushed his fingers against the communications screen. Wordlessly, he laid down on his back, and pried open the access panel. He looked at the mess of wires and seemingly illogical pattern and began talking.

"It's a screen used for showing data, and inter vessel communications." He looked once at the others around him before continuing.

"Your main viewing wire has been placed with the auditory and data downloading outlet..."He reached up and unplugged it, not even wincing when sparks flew at his face. Uhura gasped.

"Are you okay?" Eridani nodded but not before Scotty went on his ramble.

"Oi, lad! Watch it! If ye're going to fix it, do it with the proper tools, at least!" Eridani ignored him and continued with what he was doing.

"And your main auditory and data downloading line has been placed in the..." he unplugged that one, "main viewing line outlet." He plugged the wires back where they belonged and flipped a switch. The power shut of and he waited exactly five point four seconds before flipping it again. The power came back on and the screen was working again. The bridge crew looked at him in awe.

"Well, lad. Thank ye for doin' my work for me. How old are ye, exactly?"

"Five years and two days old, sir." Scotty looked at Spock and Kirk standing in the doorway and raised his eyebrows in surprise. It was the famous Vulcan preciseness.

"You have an engineering genius here, Mr. Spock." McCoy raised his eyes to heaven.

"Great. Now I have another walking, talking computer on this ship..." Chekov snickered and Sulu hit him up the side of the head.

"Well, Mr. Eridani, do you have any interest in fencing?" Sulu began walking him down the hall again, taking the boy's bag for him. Scotty was still staring dumbfounded at the computer.

"Yes, Mr. Spock," said Kirk softly as they watched them all walk down the hall, Uhura making sure that the sparks hadn't burned him. "We've already taken him. And we will raise him as one of our own family members." What happened next made McCoy miss the chair he was going to lean on and crash to the floor in a highly undignified manner.

For once, Spock smiled.

Outside, the sun of Vulcan was shining brightly, almost as if it was shining more brightly than usual in its happiness for the new stage of her brother's life. The _Enterprise_ warped away, and the sun still shone brilliantly, but seemed to dim to a bright glow after several solar flares went off. Almost as if it had sighed in contentment.

_**~'*'~ Shahtau ~'*'~**_

**Ha'su**: angel

**T'nash-veh**: my

**whl'q'n**: Vulcan

**A'nihri**: father

**so-fu**: brother

**ko-fu**: sister

**Sa'mekh'al**: grandfather

**Kho'mekh-il**: grandmother

**ko-mekh**: mother

**Bath'paik vu so-fu t'ron-tu**: damn you you son of a dog

**'el luSpet 'ej Hegh**: crawl in a hole and die.

**t'ahm t'Surak**: in the name of Surak

**Na' ma'toi temep-sharu, ko-mekh**: Before death's gateway, mother

**Bolau tu shom**: you must rest.

**Ra t'du ahm**: what is your name. (JUST TO PROVE IT IS POSSIBLE THIS ISN'T USED IN THE STORY!)

**Dif-tor heh smusma**: live long and prosper.

**Fa-wak shroi ri nash-veh nemut zhitlar**: I will not listen to the words of my enemy.

**Pi'sa-fu, ni'droi'ik nar-tor na'ri nenikaya vu eh Sileia. Kuv Sileia lam-tor be'vu...do'pra ni'droi'ik nar-tor**: little son I am sorry for not supporting you and Sileia. If Sileia is with you...announce that I am sorry.

**Po'vu, ko-mekh? Vu kwon-sum vesh'tra n'i. tor pakik**: why you mother? You always have been here and now I am so lost.

**ti'amah**: farewell.

**S'ti th'laktra**: I grieve with thee. (term used for a bereaved family member)

**t'hai'la: **friend

**T'hyla**: lover, bond-mate

**Chowtl'**: murderer


	22. Chapter 22

This is an author's note to all of you people out there who held on to the end of this story. i appreciate it very much and thank you all! Keep Flying!

~I'mAGeekNotANerd


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